Interfax: Kremlin aide says reasons economic growth measures not working must be analyzed

MOSCOW. Dec 17 (Interfax) – The reasons why measures to support economic growth are not working and why interest rates are not coming down need to be analyzed, Andrei Belousov, a Russian presidential aide, told reporters.

“As regards [November] industrial output dynamics, the result is of course negative,” Belousov said.

This is partly because the markets for metals, both ferrous and nonferrous, and the chemicals market are “far from the best of states,” Belousov said.

“But there’s another aspect that worries me far more. A year ago, in the winter of 2013, a whole set of measures was adopted to accelerate economic growth. So far we see no acceleration of economic growth. The question arises: why is this happening? We said high interest rates were putting the brakes on investment activity, but they are not coming down,” Belousov said.

“High interest rates are killing investment activity. Investors cannot simply invest money when rates are 11% and there’s a tendency for profitability to fall,” he said.