MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russian President Vladimir Putin is holding a major end-of-the-year press conference, where he is expected to focus on economic issues, the situation in Syria, Russia-US relations and the Ukrainian peace settlement.
"Let me remind you that the best indicator we had was in 2011, it was 6.1 percent, this year we will confidently have less than 6 percent, we have been thinking that it would be somewhere at 5.7-5.8 percent. Most likely, it will be around 5.5 percent, that is a record low rate of inflation. This gives a reason to believe that we can achieve the targets in the near future and to get to the parameters of 5 percent and further 4 percent of inflation," Putin said during the annual news conference.
Experts Support Russian Central Bank's Line on Cleaning up Financial System
Russian and international experts support Russia's Central Bank course toward the cleaning up of the financial system, with no one considering it to be erroneous, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated.
"First of all, the course pursued by the Central Bank on the cleaning up of the financial system is supported by almost everyone at the expert level in Russia, as well as by the international experts. No one considers that the Russia's Central Bank operates erroneously while cleaning up Russia's financial system," Putin said at the annual press conference.
"This work is aimed first of all at ensuring the interests of the investors. If institutions that… were not financial institutions, but [institutions] for money laundering, would remain at our financial market, there would be nothing good. The investors would suffer," he said.
"To ensure the interests of individuals, the insurance system was introduced. By the way, as far as I know, the Central Bank actively works with the leadership of Tatarstan [on the matter]," Putin added.
Wages in Real Sector of Russian Economy Slightly Increase
The household incomes in Russia have dropped but there is a slight increase of wages in the real economy sector, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday.
"The real disposable household incomes dropped… but here we have a certain positive trend: in recent months we still have seen a slight increase of real wages in the real sector of the economy," Putin stated.
Russia has been hit by a downturn that began in early 2015 after falling oil prices and Western anti-Russia sanctions took bite. The country's GDP fell 3.7 percent in 2015, according to the Russian Federal Statistics Service Rosstat.
In September, the Economic Development Ministry revised its 2016 growth forecast downward from —0.2 percent to —0.6 percent.
