B) Write down six questions about the text

Budgetary Policy

The transformation of the economic and political systems in Russia has been accompanied... substantial reforms in the budget process, including budget preparation and classification, a new treasury system for budget execution and expenditure control, considerable autonomy of subnational governments in the formulation of their budgets.

On the whole, the budgetary policy in Russia is aimed... attaining the efficient allocation of national resources, the desirable redistribution of income... the poorer groups in society, and the maintenance of a macroeconomic environment with stable prices, full employment and equilibrium in the balance of payments.

Accurate budget evaluation is more necessary now than ever before. The economic transition has led... drastic retrenching in public resources so there is a need to increase the efficiency with which public resources are used. Proper budget evaluation will provide critical information and feedback to policy makers... how well budget objectives are being attained... the implementation of the budget.

The transition... the market economy has significantly increased the complexity of interactions of the government with the private sector thus increasing the opportunities... misuses of funds and... corruption. For these reasons it is important that an effective and independent ex-post audit be carried... by the Accounts Chamber at all levels of government.

Words you may need:

accompany v сопровождать

treasury system система казначейства

formulation of the budget подготовка бюджета

attain v достигать, добиваться

equilibrium n равновесие

retrench v сокращать, урезывать (расходы)

feedback n обратная связь

objective n цель

misuses of funds нарушения в использовании средств

ex-post audit аудит (ревизия) использования средств

Eх. 10. Open the brackets putting the verbs in the correct active and passive form:

History of Russian Money

The first Russian coins (to mint) when Russia was converted to Christianity. The gold and silver coins of Kievan Rus were first made under Grand Duke Vladimir Sviatoslavich in the late 10th – early 11th century. After a long "coinless" period, minting (to resume) in the 1380s, under Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy of Muskovy.

The Russian monetary system, which laid the foundations of national accounting and even the present-day rouble, (to take) shape in the early 16th century. Then, the chief currency unit was the silver kopeck with a depiction of a horseman with a lance (kopye in Russian), which was Russia's emblem and the symbol of grand-ducal power. The kopeck's emergence (to connect) with the 1535-1538 reform of Yelena Glinskaya, who managed to create a single monetary system for the centralized Russian state, with the rouble containing 100 kopecks.

But by the 17th century, the Russian monetary system, based on just one type of coin, the one-kopeck piece, (to become) something of an anachronizm, lagging behind the more convenient European arrangement. Peter the Great (to bring) into circulation coins of various denominations: one-rouble, fifty-kopeck, ten-kopeck, and other coins. The "drastic change also (to involve) the minting metal, with gold and copper coins being produced in addition to the traditional silver pieces, and machine-minted coins taking the places of the hand-made ones.

The reform of finance minister Count Kankrin (1839-1843) was the first step towards turning paper banknotes into money backed by precious metal reserves. The silver rouble (to recognize) as the principal monetary unit.

During finance minister Sergei Witte's tenure in office, paper banknotes (to back) by gold reserves worth 1.5 billion roubles, and a new monetary economy was set up on the basis of scientifically computed paper money emission rates. Thanks to Witte's reform, Russia finally (to manage) to close the age-old gap between itself and Europe and to integrate into the global financial system. The rouble (to become) convertible.

In the post-1917 period the first paper banknotes of Soviet Russia (to issue). The monstrous hyperinflation of the first years of Soviet power went down once the New Economic Policy was in place and the gold reserves in the country rebuilt. The chervonets, as the new unit equivalent to 10 pre-revolutionary roubles was known, (to help) revive the Russian monetary system founded by Witte. It stayed in circulation until 1928. With the first 5-year plan in operation, when the Government resumed its practice of high emission rates, inflation (to return) and the Soviet rouble became an exclusively domestic legal tender. Now the Russian rouble (to become) an international currency.

Words you may need:

mint v чеканить

to convert to Christianity обращать в христианство

grand duke великий князь

depiction n изображение

to lag (behind) v отставать

tenure in office пребывание в должности

convertible adj конвертируемый

revive v возрождать

legal tender законное платежное средство

Дата добавления: 2014-11-29