"Experts say that the crisis stage is over": Vladimir Putin announced the start of economic recovery in Russia in June

Since June 2020, the Russian economy has begun to show recovery.

This was announced on Thursday, September 10, by the country's President Vladimir Putin.

“Today, many specialists and experts say that the most acute, crisis stage is over.

Since June, indeed, there has been a recovery in economic dynamics in Russia.

Consumer activity is growing, and such important indicators as electricity consumption and the volume of freight traffic by rail are gradually returning to last year's level, ”Putin said at a meeting on economic issues.

The head of state noted that this year, Russia, like the whole world, faced objective difficulties when, due to the coronavirus epidemic, entire areas of the economy were forced to stop.

According to him, the pandemic most strongly affected trade, services, construction and some industrial production.

At the same time, as the president stressed, the depth of the economic recession in Russia turned out to be less than in other leading countries.

According to the latest data from Rosstat, in the second quarter of 2020, Russia's GDP decreased by 8%.

In turn, in the eurozone, the figure fell by 14.7%, and in the United States - by 31.7%.

This state of affairs is partly due to the peculiarities of the structure of the Russian economy.

Georgy Ostapkovich, director of the Center for Market Research at the Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge, NRU HSE, spoke about this in a conversation with RT.

“We have an economy-forming industry - industry, which accounts for about 30% of GDP.

How industrial production works, so does the economy.

Industrial enterprises were the least of all in lockdowns, as opposed to services, tourism and transportation.

At the same time, in the USA and Western Europe, industry occupies only 20% of the economy, ”the expert explained.

Note that in August, business activity in the Russian manufacturing industry showed a sharp increase.

According to the analytical agency IHS Markit, this sector of the country's economy showed expansion for the first time in almost a year and a half, and the PMI index rose above the critical mark of 50 points and reached 51.1 points.

This index reflects the real state of a particular sector.

A value above 50 points indicates a positive economic situation, below 50 points - about stagnation.

According to Vladimir Putin, the economic recovery was accelerated by timely measures to support the population, enterprises and entire industries.

In particular, we are talking about the provision of credit vacations, direct payments to families with children, as well as soft loans and tax breaks for companies and entrepreneurs.

According to experts, together with the abolition of quarantine restrictions, the actions of the authorities led to a revival of consumer demand.

"Compared to the second quarter, consumption has grown, especially since citizens were provided with the necessary material support in the form of payments for families with children, an increase in unemployment benefits," the first vice president of the all-Russian public organization of small and medium-sized businesses Opora Rossii told RT Pavel Sigal.

Targeted assistance

According to the forecast of the Central Bank, by the end of 2020, Russia's GDP will decrease by 4.5-5.5%.

Meanwhile, according to the country's Ministry of Finance, the decline in the indicator may be more restrained.

“The situation with growth rates is one of the best, not bad.

Because if in some countries the economy shrinks by five or more percent compared to last year, we see this year that the economy will decline by less than 4%, "said Finance Minister Anton Siluanov on September 8 during a speech at the Moscow Financial Forum ...

Meanwhile, against the backdrop of the resumption of the work of enterprises and the emergence of positive trends in the economy, the unemployment rate in the country still remains "at a fairly high level," Vladimir Putin said.

According to him, today the figure exceeds 6% of the economically active population.

“Let me remind you that we had such a level in March 2012.

We started, about a year and a half ago we had 4.7%, now - 6.3%.

It seems to be a little percentage, but this is a significant increase, "Putin added.

In this regard, the head of state set a goal for the government to restore employment in the country by the end of 2021 and reduce unemployment to 4.7%.

At the same time, the President noted that it is impossible to stop supporting the Russians in a difficult situation.

“We need to continue to support people in a targeted manner, people who have found themselves in a difficult situation and have not yet found a job,” the Russian leader emphasized.

As Pavel Sigal noted, in September a retraining program for citizens who lost their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic also began to operate.

In retraining courses, Russians can master a new profession for free in three weeks.

According to the forecasts of the Cabinet of Ministers, the support measures will allow employing about 110 thousand people.

“In general, the measures taken by the state should prevent a decrease in the income of citizens, reduce the unemployment rate and enable businesses not to reduce the number of jobs,” concluded Sigal.