Contents tagged with Russian Economy
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Russia considers banning gasoline exports to stop soaring prices
The Russian authorities decided to take a sharp step to cool fuel inflation, which continues to accelerate, taking Russians out the hypnosis of "stability” ahead of the September Duma elections.
According to RIA Novosti, the Russian Energy Ministry appealed with an official request to the government to introduce a ban on the export of gasoline under an accelerated procedure.
On Wednesday, the head of the Energy Ministry, Nikolai Shulginov, warned that such a step is being seriously considered. …
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More than half of Russia’s youths want to emigrate
The proportion of young people in Russia who do not want to link their future to the country has grown dramatically, the sociologists at the Levada Center have discovered.
A survey conducted in September in 50 of Russia’s federal subjects showed that 53% of respondents between 18 and 24 years of age wanted to emigrate. Their numbers have jumped by nearly 50% compared to May, and hit a record for at least the 10 years of monitoring.
The summer months, which were accompanied by protests in …
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Putin: Russian economy has avoided recession
The Russian government has managed to prevent the economy from slipping into a recession, said Russian President Vladimir Putin at a BRICS summit in Brazil, TASS reports.
While speaking to participants of a BRICS forum, the Russian leader commented that the global economic situation remains difficult. “The use of unscrupulous competition in global trade has also had an effect: unilateral sanctions, protectionism is rife,” Putin observed.
“In Russia for many years we have been pursuing a …
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Media: Russia’s 2008-2020 development plan is unfeasible
The long-term socio-economic development targets for 2020 that Russia set itself in 2008 have proven to be unfeasible, the RBC news agency concluded on the basis of its own analysis. The analysts recognize that the deadline has been extended for a number of targets since they became national targets, marked by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decree in May 2018. Nevertheless, the dynamics of the economic indicators in recent years have shown that the goals of the plan cannot be achieved …
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Russia to spend $6 billion to open ‘window to Africa’
After writing off $140 billion owed by Syria, Vietnam, North Korea, countries in Africa and Latin America and former Soviet republics in Central Asia over the last 20 years, Russia is planning to drastically increase its lending to foreign governments over the next three years.
In the draft budget for 2020-2022, the Russian government has allocated $6 billion to loans to foreign governments and companies. This is the most in the country’s modern history, Bloomberg observes. The funds will be …
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Half of Russians can only just afford food and clothing
In Russia, the number of families whose financial resources are only just enough to buy food and clothing is growing, according to data from the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat), as cited by RBC. Between April and July 2019, 49.4% families fell under this category, 0.6 percentage points more than a year ago. These families cannot afford durable products such as computers, refrigerators, washing machines, furniture, etc.
This year, the proportion of Russian families with just enough …
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Brain drain in Russia passes 10 million mark
Russia and other former Soviet states in Eastern Europe are continuing to lose their workforce to emigration, the World Bank stated in a report titled “Migration and the brain drain in Europe and Central Asia”.
According to the bank, 10.6 million Russian citizens had left the country by 2017 to work abroad, more than from Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova combined.
In terms of the absolute number of emigrants, Russia is firmly in the lead among the 24 countries which the World Bank includes under …
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Russian lawmakers admit that 2018 GDP growth figures were falsified
No confirmation can be found for the 6-year record economic growth reported by the Russian Ministry of Economic Development and the Federal Statistics Service (Rosstat) last year, said Andrey Makarov, head of the State Duma taxes and budget committee, during a session of parliament on Friday.
Instead of a 2.3% GDP growth, a figure that Rosstat plucked “like a rabbit from a hat”, Makarov said that three weeks after a change of management “completely different figures” are being arrived at.
He …
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US Congress prepares to deal new blow to Russian economy
The lull in sanctions which Russia enjoyed during US Congress’s interim elections and government shutdown is now coming to an end.
After the four-month break, Congress is once again discussing new measures that can be taken against Russia. The possibilities range from a ban on investments in Russian government debt to a complete disconnection of Russian government banks from the global dollar transaction system.
Congress’s first hearings following its elections will be held on 12 February in …
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Confidence of Russians in a better future reaches all time low
The pension reform, the depreciation of the ruble, the endless sanction conflict with the West and the government’s plans to raise taxes after a record drop in the population’s real income – all of these factors have undermined Russians’ faith in the country’s prospects.
At the end of the second quarter, 50% of Russians thought that the country’s worst times were yet to come, according to a report on social well-being by the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE).
In …