VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
“Support from Russian citizens has always helped us, and I’m confident that the government’s future line-up will rely on the people. We must never forget about the needs of ordinary people. We must always remember how government-level decisions influence the lives of all ordinary Russian citizens.”
“We have big support programmes for agriculture, such as tax breaks and subsidies. Last year we issued large subsidies, which covered 60% of spending. Early this year we increased them to 80%, and in livestock breeding to 100%, at the request of farmers and in view of problems due to the economic downturn. In general, I would like to tell all those present here, including farmers, that in 2009 we have issued 700 billion roubles ($24.1 billion) of loans to agriculture through different channels. This is more than ever before, but then, agriculture has never reported such good results before either. We will continue to implement these programmes.”
"The economy has been growing in the past five months. The growth is modest, an average of 0.5% a month, and some months even lower, 0.3%. Some months the economy grew by 0.8%, but on average the economy has been growing by 0.5% for the past five months. I very much hope that these positive figures will grow by the middle of next year."
"We are restoring our gold and currency reserves. Today they are the third largest in the world after the People's Republic of China and Japan and amount to $444 billion. We have a trade surplus, and we will probably have the best indicator in this area. We have a positive trade balance, probably the best figure. We did well in 2006, and the inflation rate is likely to be lower this year. It will be lower than 10% this year, probably even one-digit figure, around 9%. This means that we have coped with these problems."
"We see the average wage falling; it is down 3.6%. Why? Because the fall in the commercial sector was considerable, 5.6%, I think. The influence on the public sector became evident in 2009 because the wage fund in the sector was increased in December 2008, and so wages in that sector increased by 4.1%. We have increased pensions considerably, by 13%-14%."
"In the sectors that the Government considers to be its direct sphere of responsibility the situation is more or less acceptable. For instance, industry, as I said, is expected to contract by 13%, but the defence industry will grow by 3.7%. And in some areas, for example in aerospace, they have many problems too and we were recently looking at this industry - but they have a growth of 13%."
"What has been done during this difficult year, I would say, first, that it was one of the most difficult years in the past decade - not only for us, but for the world economy in general. These events have hit us hard. We had predicted (though no official forecasts were made), some experts believed that GDP in Russia would drop by about 10%. It has dropped significantly, but not as much as some experts had thought. It is likely to be 8.5-8.7%. That is a lot."
“A total of 14,500 people are employed at the construction site and over 2,000 construction machines are being used. Of all the facilities planned, 123 are at the design stage; 42 are already past that stage; and construction is underway on 49 sites. The grand ice arena is at an advanced stage of construction. Local infrastructure is also being developed - the Sochi bypass highway is near completion.”
“Next year state defence orders will be boosted considerably, specifically to 1.75 trillion roubles. We hope that this decision will not only allow us to begin the upcoming modernisation of the defence industry, but will also provide significant support to related companies and encourage the introduction of high technologies and the manufacture of cutting-edge materials and components. This will result in a considerable increase in the efficiency of the rocket and space industry. All the more so, because in 2010, defence companies are to supply over 30 ground-based and sea-based ballistic missiles and 11 space shuttles to the Armed Forces.”
“Despite the overall economic and industrial decline caused by the global economic downturn, the defence industry has grown by over 3% - to be exact, by 3.7% to 3.8% - primarily thanks to state support. That's not bad.”
