Russia’s Ministry of Agriculture reports that as of the beginning of May, the agricultural bank, Rosselkhozbank, had issued 63 billion roubles ($1.1bn) in loans to agricultural enterprises under the preferential lending mechanism which provides funding at the low rate of 5%.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, these soft loans are aimed at financing seasonal work which contributed to the quality of the spring sowing campaign.
I might have lost this in translation but 63 billion roubles seems like a lot considering the loan mechanism was only agreed in January and last month the Ministry was complaining the scheme wasn’t working fast enough.
If it is accurate then it makes the Rural Payments Agency look like rank amateurs.
The state-owned JSC Rosselkhozbank was founded in 2000 and is one of the largest and most stable banks in the country in terms of assets and capital.