ST. PETERSBURG, September 10 (Itar-Tass) — A second wave of the global economic crisis now is more probable than before summer, Vice Prime Minister and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said.
Speaking at a conference on the 20th anniversary of economic reforms in Russia, held in St. Petersburg on Saturday, September 10, Kudrin recalled that he had estimated this probability at the St. Petersburg World Economic Forum in June at 25 percent.
“Now the situation has deteriorated and I give more points,” he added but did not say how much his forecast has changed.
“Old problems were not fully solved, and the resources that helped smooth things over are used up,” Kudrin said.
Among the reasons for the deterioration of the global economic situation, he named the pace of economic development in the United States and uncertainty with the resolution of economic problems in EU countries.
Assessing the European economy and using Greece as an example, Kudrin said the main problem was that “the members of the Euro zone do not support one of their countries” and “this creates uncertainty in other member states”.
“The European Union should consolidate for rescuing its countries, as weakness or the ‘dumping’ of one of the countries will only create new systemic risks,” the minister said.
In order to prevent global economic problems in the future, Kudrin believes it necessary to tune up a system of loan risk regulation and “build restrictions that would reduce the expansion of certain countries”.