The Russian economy has great potential. This was stated by the head of the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia Maxim Reshetnikov on Thursday, March 23.
“Our economy is a very strong thing. This is the first. Secondly, it has great potential,” the minister said on the air of the Russia 24 TV channel.
He noted that the basis of this potential is domestic demand, RT reports. Investments in the domestic market, real estate, tourism, engineering production and other areas will continue, Reshetnikov concluded.
Earlier in the day, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said during the government’s 2022 government report that Russia’s GDP decline was quite moderate, despite analysts’ double-digit decline last spring. He noted that the country’s economy was returned “to the trajectory of growth,” according to the website aif.ru.
The head of the Cabinet also pointed out that in March last year, the Russian government and the Bank of Russia, on behalf of President Vladimir Putin, prepared a number of measures to stabilize the situation in the financial sector. Thus, the work of credit institutions, the currency and stock markets was normalized. In addition, external blocking of trading operations was avoided.
At the same time, the substitution of the dollar and the euro in Russia’s foreign trade made it possible to expand operations with friendly states.
The head of government noted that more than 300 measures out of 33,000 proposed were included in the plan of priority actions for developing the economy in the face of sanctions pressure. At the same time, direct support for the plan from the country’s budget and the National Wealth Fund amounted to about 1.5 trillion rubles. Nearly 4 trillion more was allocated for concessional lending programs for businesses.
Earlier, on March 22, Forbes columnist Kenneth Rapoza noted that the sanctions were supposed to strangle the Russian financial sector, but looking at the situation in the banking sector in the US and Russia, it is obvious that the latter are doing much better.
On the same day, the Ministry of Economic Development reported that in Russia inflation in annual terms as of March 20 had slowed to 5.99%. The ministry noted that in the food sector, prices increased by 0.03% due to higher food prices. In the service segment, the price growth rate was 0.35%.
On March 20, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that among the consequences of sanctions there are minuses, but at the same time there are huge pluses for the development of production in the country. At the same time, the Russian leader pointed to the need to help businessmen avoid offenses.