“Consumer demand is still weak,” Putin said during a meeting on economic issues.

He noted that retail sales in Russia in August decreased by 8.8% in real terms, and in September this dynamics worsened even more.

Earlier it became known that Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin predicts the return of the Russian economy to strong growth "in a little more than a year."

On September 29, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that Russia's budget deficit would exceed 0.9% of GDP in light of the new challenges.