Oleg Deripaska, head of Rusal, commenting on the Russian banking structure in FT, says bank lending is dominated by just five major banks who handle 72% of all loans and are mostly state-controlled. Interest rates are too high, with small firms struggling to get credit; typically loans are over just three years and are charged at 15% interest.
And not just the banking sector…
Gazprom, the majority-state-owned natural gas and oil producer, comes into the firing line for raising gas prices to levels where they are hurting Russian consumers – by which he means commercial consumers – as Gazprom tries to raise subsidized domestic prices closer to the prices it secures for export sales to Europe.
by Stuart Burns