ST. PETERSBURG, June 25 (RIA Novosti) - The economic and political situation in Russia is stable, President Vladimir Putin said at the Saturday meeting with U.S. businessmen,
"We ensured stable economic growth which totaled some 7% in the last five years," he said.
The economic growth was 5.4% over the first five months of 2005. "It is higher than average world rates," the president said.
Putin also said that the Russian economy would hopefully keep growing.
"We shall consider growth rates of the agricultural and processing spheres in the second half of the year," he said.
According to Putin, the low economic growth rate was explained by the low dynamics of the oil sector development throughout the world.
