Econ min believes Russia’s economy passes crisis peak in mid-2015

MOSCOW, Jan 26 (PRIME) -- The Russian economy passed the peak of the crisis in late June 2015 and positive movement has started forming since then, Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev told President Vladimir Putin at a Tuesday meeting.

Putin said that there are conditions for the country’s economy to improve in 2016. “In addition to the budget deficit, which was lesser than we expected, we have good reserves and a low debt level. All of this creates favorable conditions to expect an improvement in the situation this year,” Putin said.

Ulyukayev also said that the amount of central bank’s reserves remained at a high level. “All of this created a macroeconomic stability environment and participants of the market appraise it correctly,” he said.

In 2015, Russia’s economy contracted 3.7% and industrial output fell 3.4%, the statistics service said earlier. The budget deficit amounted to 1.95 trillion rubles in 2015, or 2.6% of gross domestic product (GDP), according to a preliminary estimate of the Finance Ministry.

(77.7965 rubles – U.S. $1)

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