MOSCOW, November 1. /TASS/. The Russian economy is developing as expected - in the first nine months of 2023, the country's GDP increased by 2.8% year-on-year, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a meeting on economic issues.
"Operational statistics show that the economic situation [in the Russian Federation] as a whole is developing steadily, in accordance with the forecast. Over the first 9 months of this year, Russia's GDP grew by 2.8% compared to the same period last year," he said, specifying that in August and September this figure increased by 5.2%.
Putin emphasized that the country is experiencing rapid growth in the manufacturing industry as well as in real-estate sectors unrelated to natural resource extraction.
According to him, industrial production climbed by 3.3% and manufacturing - by 7.1% from January to September, 2023.
He also noted that the decree requiring some exporters to sell their foreign currency revenues has already helped to stabilize the foreign exchange market. "The stabilization of the foreign exchange market should help slow inflation. A decree requiring the sale of foreign exchange earnings came into effect. There were numerous questions as to whether it would play a good role or not. It did," he said.
He noted that unemployment in Russia remains consistently low at around 3% and wages are rising faster than inflation. "All of this is happening while unemployment remains consistently low. It is now around 3%," Putin said. He added, "Wages are also increasing. Over 8 months the figures added 7.5% in real terms, that is, wages are growing at a rate higher than inflation."
Putin also anticipates further strengthening of anti-Russian sanctions, he said during a meeting on economic issues.
"We must be prepared for the fact that the Western sanctions pressure will increase," he said. "Yes, in recent years our so-called partners have already adopted countless packages of sanctions, they have practically become entangled in these sanctions themselves, they tried to punish us, but in the end, as we see, this is a completely obvious thing and this is evident from the statistics, they hit their own economy," Putin added.