ST. PETERSBURG, June 17. /TASS/. The West has been vacuuming up goods from poorest countries, leaving behind just scraps, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the SPEIF 2022 plenary session on Friday.
"They printed huge amounts of money, and then what? Where did this money go to? Obviously, to purchase goods and services outside Western countries as well. That is where that printed money went. They literally began vacuuming up global markets, sucking them out, like a Hoover, while certainly, nobody thought or wanted to think about the interests of other countries, including the poorest ones. Those were left, as we say in Russia, with scraps, what is more, at astronomical prices," he said.
According to the president, while US imports were about $250 billion a month at the end of 2019, now they have surged to $350 billion.
"It is noteworthy that the increase has been 40%. Proportionally, it equates to the unfunded pumping of the dollar supply of recent years. They have printed and handed out the money, and for that money they sucked out all the goods from third countries’ markets," the Russian president said.
Putin added that the United States had long been a major exporter of food to the world’s markets.
"Indeed, they used to be deservedly proud of their agriculture, of their farming traditions. By the way, it is an example for many and for us, too," he said.
However, nowadays the US role has changed drastically, as it turned from a food exporter into a net importer.
"Roughly speaking, it prints money and pulls in commodity flows, buying up food around the world," Putin said adding that far higher rates of soaring imports can be seen in the European Union.
"It is evident that this dramatic increase in demand, which was not met by commodity supply, has triggered a wave of shortages and global inflation. In the last couple of years, almost everything in the world has become more expensive, namely raw materials, consumer goods, especially food. Those countries continue to import, but the balance between exports and imports is already in the other direction. They have already $17 billion more imports than exports," the Russian president noted.
About SPIEF 2022
The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum organized by the Roscongress Foundation is running from June 15 to 18. This year’s forum is dubbed: ‘New Opportunities in a New World’. The SME Forum, the Creative Business Forum, the Drug Security Forum, the SPIEF Junior Dialogue and SPIEF Sport Week are also going to be part of the SPIEF event. TASS serves as the event’s official photo hosting agency and the information partner.