The meeting was attended by Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Anton Vaino, First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov, First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Sergei Kiriyenko, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova, Deputy Prime Minister – Chief of the Government Staff Dmitry Grigorenko, Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, Presidential Aide Maxim Oreshkin, Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov, Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov and Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina.
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Opening remarks at the meeting on economic issues
President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Colleagues, good afternoon.
Today we will discuss some current issues on the economic agenda and assess the trends in the key sectors.
Let me note that in general, Russian companies, enterprises and businesses are working confidently, successfully overcoming the difficulties that arise. Moreover, according to statistics, it was not only possible to secure the stability of the real sector, finance and services, but also to achieve significant progress in the critical development areas. This was the task we set when formulating the approaches to economic policy.
You know well that, starting in the second quarter of 2022, Russia’s GDP began to grow by approximately 0.5–0.7 percent quarterly. While GDP decreased by 2.1 percent throughout 2022, in January-May of this year it grew by 0.6 percent, and the pace accelerated every month: up to 5.4 percent in May. We expect the GDP to increase by more than 2 percent by the end of the year.
Recall that forecasts varied: the IMF projected 0.7 percent, and our forecast was around nine. Prime Minister [Mikhail Mishustin] and I spoke recently: we hope that it will be higher than two. So, this growth will fully compensate for last year’s decrease.
Manufacturing, construction and retail trade are among the leading industries. Growth in these industries, as well as the entire package of economic support measures, has a beneficial effect on the state of the labour market.
Unemployment, as we know well, is also decreasing. It is 3.2 percent now. At the same time, real wages have grown by double digits for the first time since 2018: more than 10 percent in April. Once again, let me note as always that this is the average and the situation may differ in different sectors and regions, but on average, there is growth and, let me repeat this, in real terms. The general result is good. It has even exceeded expectations and preliminary calculations.
To be continued.