Russian Premier Offers Anti-Inflationary Budget: Chernomyrdin's Plan Banks on Billions
MOSCOW, Oct. 25ÛÓThe Russian government has prepared its most ambitious anti-inflation program yet, a 1995 budget that would bring monthly inflation rates down to 1 percent but would also require unprecedented infusions of Western cash, Russian and Western officials said today.</br></br>Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, renewing his commitment to tight-money policies in the wake of a disastrous ruble crash earlier this month, is scheduled to defend the budget plan before a skeptical parliament on Thursday. There is no assurance that the parliament will endorse it, no guarantee that the government will stick to its resolutions and no certainty that Western governments and organizations will come up with the billions Russia is counting on to make it work.</br></br>But U.S. Treasury Undersecretary Lawrence H. Summers, concluding a round of meetings with Chernomyrdin and other top officials, said today that he was encouraged by "a commitment to serious stabilization.Û He said the political leadership here had taken the ruble's fall on Oct. 11, now known as ÛÏBlack Tuesday,Û as "a wake-up call.Û ÛÏItÛªs clear that Russian economic reform is at an important crossroads, and itÛªs clear that the government is charting a course forward," Summers said at a news conference.</br></br>RussiaÛªs commitment to fighting inflation is key to the success of its economic reforms in general, since high rates of inflation scare away most new investment, many economists say. But to reduce inflation, the government must make many unpopular decisions, ending subsi-</br></br>Summers noted that Russia has made substantial progress in shifting state enterprises to the private sector and lowering the inflation rateÛÓ from as much as 30 percent a month last year to about 5 percent in August.	ÐÊ	ÐÊ-