SOCHI, May 26. /TASS/. Instability factors are still active in the Russian and the global economies, and authorities need to constantly stay tuned, President Vladimir Putin says on Wednesday in an opening statement at the meeting on economic issues.

"Instability factors are still active in the Russian and in the global economies, you are very well aware of that," the head of state says.

"The finger should be on the pulse constantly, and business activity trends should be analyzed promptly" in Russia and overseas in such environment, Putin noted. "Certainly, the movement of key macroeconomic indices should be assessed," he added.

The President suggested discussing the current economic agenda and tasks of supporting small and medium enterprises, housing construction, and other branches’ development at the meeting.

President also noted that "macroeconomic indicators objectively evidence that the Russian economy is gradually recovering". 

"They indicate fairly that the Russian economy, despite all the challenges, is gradually recovering nevertheless, overcoming consequences of the coronavirus epidemic," Putin said.

National GDP in January — March 2021 is just 1% lower than in the pre-crisis first quarter of the last year, the President noted. "I would like to remind that the global and the Russian economies worked normally, steadily at that time, without all-round lockdowns caused by the epidemic," he said.

Many economic indicators have not yet achieved prior values, but positive changes are evident, the head of state said. "The processing sector of the Russian industry gained 1.4% in the first quarter, added 5.4% in March, while in April, on the back of the major decline in the last year, the increase was 14.2%," he added.