The causes of inflation in Russia

Not so long ago, the government of Russia strengthened measures to contain inflation for food products in the country. The reason was the increase in inflation in the first half of the year. And according to August inflation has grown even more. Prices for flour increased by 5.5%, for semolina - by 3.2%, for chicken meat - by 4%. This is very noticeable, especially for people living below the poverty line. And there are about twenty million of them in Russia.

What are the causes of inflation in Russia? One of the first reasons is called the world drought. Almost the whole world has suffered from it. Many farms in the country have suffered losses from drought, and, most likely, they will need state subsidies. This year, the grain harvest was 77 million tons, which is 15 million less than last year. This means that the prices for grain will rise, followed by bread and meat. And it is unlikely that the government will be able to curb the rise in food prices.

Although here there are some oddities. For internal needs, the country will need only 65 million tons of grain. The rest will be exported. Hence, the country does not face a grain shortage. Just sell less abroad. Why then does it come about the shortage of cereals? Yes, and did not have time to affect the new crop on the price tags. Usually grain and bread are shared for several months, this year's harvest has not yet reached the counters.

The causes of inflation are unlikely to be in the global drought. And the products do not become expensive. Most likely, it is only in our Russian reality. First, in the summer, tariffs for the services of monopolies were planned. This should have happened earlier, but the elections prevented it. Secondly, no one holds back the price of gasoline, which could not but strike at the peasant farms, because for transportation and storage it is necessary to pay already today at the present tariffs for gasoline and energy.

And that's not all the reasons for inflation today. An important component with a purely Russian origin is the monopolization of the product market in Russia. All over the world, the food market is the most competitive with the most flexible prices. At us each market is a small monopoly, which keeps the prices iron and unshakable. Of course, there does not smell any competition. There is a market owner, and all prices are agreed with him. Put less - more expensive.

Speaking about monopolization, it is impossible to miss the market of energy resources, which sins the same. The government could tighten control in this area by administrative methods, but this can lead to a deficit in the energy market, which will entail a slowdown in the economy.

Enumerating the causes of inflation, it is impossible not to recall the corruption component of each product. This is not so little. Some time ago, experts from Transparency International examined the components of the price of milk, a fairly popular and widely available product. It turned out that in the price of milk bribes, kickbacks and other payments amount to 30%. Apparently, the other products that we buy, in this sense, do not differ much from milk.

There are several other inflation, the reasons for which lie in irrational spending of budget funds. We decided to use most of the budget funds at the end of the year, when it is very difficult to really use the money. This can not but have inflationary consequences. Now again, many programs and competitions have not received funding, and they expect it in the second half of the year. Hence, this year will not be an exception in terms of price growth.

Studying the causes of inflation, thus, we get a situation that seems somewhat paradoxical. Russia is a country of grain exporter, but in the first half of the year food products rose by 6%, while in Europe, where grain imports are imported, prices rose 1.6%.