International Business : Russian Parliament Rejects Yeltsin’s Choice to Head Central Bank : Economies: It also derides Prime Minister Chernomyrdin for painting an overly rosy economic picture.

The Russian Parliament on Wednesday rejected President Boris N. Yeltsin’s candidate for central bank chairman and derided Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin for painting an overly rosy picture of a rebounding economy.

One key parliamentary critic called for another no-confidence vote in the government, and while it is unlikely that such a vote could succeed, the move reflects the deep economic discontent afflicting Russia on the eve of an election campaign.

Chernomyrdin mustered an arsenal of upbeat statistics to show that Russia’s economy, if not prosperous, is at last on the right track.

He noted that the gross national product dropped just 4% in the first six months of 1995, compared to a 17% dive during the same period last year. He said inflation has fallen from 17.8% in January to an estimated 5% to 5.5% this month. And he trumpeted the stabilization of the ruble, which has been steadily gaining against the dollar and closed at 4,531 to the dollar Wednesday.

However, Chernomyrdin conceded that real incomes had shrunk again this year. After inflation, the Russian disposable income dropped by 7% during the first six months of this year over the same period in 1994--an agonizing squeeze at a time when government statistics show 30% of the population living below the official poverty line of $61 a month.

Acknowledging that wages had not kept up with inflation, Chernomyrdin asked the Duma, or lower house of Parliament, to approve a hike in the monthly minimum wage to about $12. The proposal was immediately approved.

However, Chernomyrdin’s biannual report on the economy was attacked from all sides.

The government’s liberal critics charged that Chernomyrdin and the central bank had sacrificed the fight against inflation to prop up the ruble, putting a further burden on the poor.

“The dangerous thing is the ruble rate is lagging 30% behind inflation, and we will face the consequences this fall,” economist Grigory A. Yavlinsky said.

“The basic facts about the state of the economy are not encouraging at all,” Yavlinsky said. “Monthly inflation [averaged] 10% during the first six months of 1995, higher than last year, the budget is failing in both revenues and expenditures, the country is at war, and textbooks for schoolchildren are not being published.”

“Economically, we haven’t turned the corner. We haven’t even seen it yet,” agreed former Finance Minister Boris G. Fyodorov.

“But we have succeeded in reaching the bottom, and we are definitely very much there,” he said. He predicted no improvement for at least another year.

Chernomyrdin’s leftist foes accused him of allowing Russian industry and science to wither away under the false promise of free-market reform.

Lawmakers of both views joined together to vote down the nomination of Tatyana V. Paramonova, who has been acting central bank chair, to that permanent post.

Despite a last-ditch lobbying attempt by the government and her former boss, ousted central bank Chairman Viktor V. Gerashchenko, only 167 of the needed 226 deputies voted to approve Paramonova.

“What can I do?” a flushed Paramonova asked after the vote, but she added cheerfully, “I will continue to work.”

Economist Pavel G. Bunich said nothing prevented Yeltsin from keeping Paramonova on permanently as chair.

The new Russian constitution has left the Duma toothless. Yeltsin has ignored parliamentary votes to sack two other senior officials, and lawmakers expected most of Wednesday’s criticisms to be dismissed.

“There is nothing we can do about it,” Bunich said.

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