Putin Comments on State of Russia’s Economy

MOSCOW – President Vladimir Putin considers the current situation in the Russian economy to be generally positive, according to the transcript of the meeting on economic issues released on the Kremlin’s website on Tuesday. “The situation in the Russian economy is generally positive on key parameters,” he said.

The president noted the dynamics of industrial output since the beginning of this year. “Industrial growth has reached 3.1% in eight months, including a 3.8% increase of manufacturing,” he said.

Putin also mentioned the performance of enterprises and organizations in terms of fixed capital investments that went up by 3.2% in the first half of 2018. “Freight turnover is also rising (3% in eight months), same as retail trade (2.7%),” he said, adding that “those are important indicators not only of business activity, but also of consumer demand.”

 Putin considers fueling higher growth rates and a faster wage and real income growth to be a systemic task in the economy.

“The systemic task is to reach higher economic growth rates, maintain investment activity, spur the development of manufacturing, small and medium-sized businesses, non-resource high-tech export, fuel faster growth of wages and real income of citizens,” Putin said.

Financial stability 

Vladimir Putin has noted successful joint efforts of the government and the Central Bank on maintaining the stability of the Russian financial market.

“The financial market is holding steady, particularly thanks to joint efforts of the government and the Central Bank,” Putin said.

“[Russia’s] gold and foreign exchange reserves have increased by 5.7% to $459 bln since the beginning of this year,” he added.

TASS

R.S