Russia continues to develop national price indicators

In September last year, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin recommended that the Bank of RUSSIA, together with federal authorities, develop a concept for a national system of financial and commodity indicators, as well as mechanisms for their administration. That is, to create benchmarks for interest rates in the economy, exchange rates, the cost of securities and goods, which were previously set by Western agencies such as BLOOMBERG .

In an interview with Parlamentskaya Gazeta, Vice Speaker of the Federation Council Nikolai Zhuravlev noted that there is a need to independently calculate price indicators in order to provide independent information and analytical support to market participants. The senator explained that the upper house of parliament, together with interested ministries and departments, took part in the development of a document that would contribute to the emergence of transparent pricing mechanisms in Russia. 

Also, according to him, the parliamentarians, together with the government and the Central Bank, are working on the introduction of a mandatory limit on purchases on the stock exchange for a certain list of goods, which will form the necessary basis for the calculation. We are talking about goods that affect the formation of prices for other goods, which is why legislators propose to introduce regulation for them on the stock exchange according to the minimum trading limit, Zhuravlev explained. In addition, legislators propose to use the data possessed by trading systems and operators of electronic platforms. According to him, the relevant bills are at a high stage of readiness.

The FAS clarifies that the implementation of the initiative "will help increase the liquidity of exchange trading in cash goods and, as a result, increase the transparency of pricing in commodity markets." The final list of these goods will be established by the government at the suggestion of the FAS. Such an approach, according to the service, will ensure the creation of objective cost indicators, which are also a pricing benchmark in the over-the-counter market, that is, on store shelves.

In the spring, Interfax wrote that price indicators are supposed to be set, including for some types of agricultural products: pork, frozen fish, wheat, rye, meslin, barley, corn, SUGAR, soybeans, sunflower, rapeseed, sunflower oil , meal . Later, the Ministry of Economic Development also proposed adding cattle and poultry MEAT , as well as margarine, to the list.

According to Georgy Ostapkovich, DIRECTOR of the HSE Center for Business Research, the formation of national product indicators is an information resource that includes the product range, its quantity on the market, price, origin, etc. “That is, manufacturers will be more competent in working with goods<. ..>. In itself, this initiative is correct, because our economic community does not always have a good idea of ​​what is happening with individual goods, this applies not only to agriculture,” commented Ostapkovich. - The more transparent the production of goods, its movement, the better for the market. Indices are a global amplification of information for the market.” According to him, difficulties with the introduction of indexes may arise with the methodological organization: who will control the information, whether enterprises will restrict the provision of this data. But these difficulties, in his opinion, do not have critical weight.