MOSCOW, January 16 (Itar-Tass) — Russian President Vladimir Putin named the economic results in 2012 as “relatively satisfactory.” The Russian president has made a statement to this effect at a meeting devoted to economic issues at the Kremlin on Wednesday.
“The economic results of the previous year were not summed up finally, but the preliminary indicators sound relatively satisfactory. In the estimates of the Russian Ministry of Economic Development the GDP growth reached 3.5% in January-November 2012. The previous year ended with a low unemployment rate of 5.4% for Russia and at the global level,” the president said.
Putin noted that the 2012 budget was executed without deficit, according to preliminary estimates, “substantial reserves” grew, the inflation rate reached 6.6% over “price fluctuations on the food products.” He recalled that in the previous decades from 2000 to 2010 the average inflation reached 12.75%.
“The real salary growth of 8.8% showed a good dynamics for the last 11 months. The growth of investments accelerated and reached 8.4% for the last 11 months against the same period in the previous year,” the president said.
However, the president noted that a fluctuating dynamics of economic indicators during the previous year causes some concerns amid these positive tendencies.
“There are no final figures for December 2012, probably they will be more reassuring, but the results of November 2012 cause some concerns. In the estimates of the Ministry of Economic Development the annual GDP growth is slowing down. Last November the GDP growth rate amounted to only 1.2%, while it reached 4.9% for the first months of the previous year. In general, the GDP growth amounted to four percent in the second quarter of the previous year, dropped to 2.9% in the third quarter,” he said.
Similar slower dynamics is reported in the industrial production, investments, some problems are observed in the agrarian sector, Putin said. Meanwhile, Putin confirmed again that Russia “can provide the country with grain completely and even retain a considerable export potential,” while the country was an absolute grain importer in the last 20-30 years.
Putin noted that the situation was quite tense in the world economy and on the financial markets in the previous year that affected the Russian economy as well.
“The second half of the previous year for most countries in the world and for the majority of economies became less successful than the first one, but certainly we should consider whether it is the only problem. We should consider our domestic problems, our internal issues, and the most important thing is to respond to those problems, which arise in the world and our economies,” the president stated.
“The debt problems in Europe were aggravated by the difficulties arising in the banking sector and finally in the second half of the previous year the region turned out to be in recession. But despite this fact we are also well aware that the leaders of the Eurozone post the positive dynamics after all, and this is very good. But, however, the problems in Europe also affected generally the world economy, other countries, including the BRICS states and our country as well,” the Russian president said.
Putin warned that some stabilization on the financial markets can turn out to be only temporary and the Russian authorities should be ready for this factor.
Putin recalled that the fluctuations on the global markets primarily affected the volatility of Russian financial and foreign currency markets, the rouble exchange rate changed constantly in the course of the previous year and this situation already became usual.
In his view, this situation “also has the positive aspect”, because this fluctuation of the rouble exchange rate “permits to isolate to the high degree the situation in the real sector of economy from the actions of financial speculators.”