ST. PETERSBURG, June 4. /TASS/. The global economy is recovering after the pandemic, Russian President Vladimir Putin said when opening the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday, adding that the pandemic-related recession turned out to be the worst one since World War II.
There are positive trends in the global economy now, he noted. "Despite the depth of last year’s recession, which experts suggest turned out to be the biggest since World War II, it is, therefore, safe to say that the global economy is returning to normalcy," Putin emphasized.
This year "global GDP growth will also be unusually high, the highest since the 1970s," the president predicted, adding that experts expect "6% growth."
"This is surely due to large-scale, extraordinary decisions taken by economic authorities worldwide," he said. "Moreover, experience has shown that the traditional measures of monetary policy would have been insufficient to cope with the current crisis," Putin stressed.
Global economic recovery is uneven
The president also noted that "the global economic recovery is uneven, which generates social and economic risks for the development of an interconnected world and for general security".
"We see that the global economy is recovering unevenly, I mean different capabilities of various countries. This is fraught with increased imbalances, growing gap in living standards within individual countries and between them," Putin said. According to him, "this generates serious political, economic, and social risks for the development of a modern, interconnected world, for common security".
According to Putin, fiscal policy plays a key role in the rapid economic recovery, when for the first time central banks actively supported it in developing countries. He noted that world’s leading economies have more resources to stimulate business activity. Putin cited statistics according to which in developed countries budget deficits in 2020 averaged 10% of GDP, and in developing countries — around 5%. "We know that anti-crisis solutions are largely financed through these deficits. And the fact that these anti-crisis solutions exist is certainly good," the President noted, but pointed out the uneven development of various countries.