Russia vows to continue implementing economic tasks despite downgraded ratings

The Russian government will continue implementing its economic decisions, despite the recent downgraded ratings by international rating agencies, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Tuesday.

"Irrespective of what rating agencies' actions will be, we need to strictly comply with government's decisions adopted in social and economic development areas," Tass news agency quoted Siluanov as saying.

"We must conduct tight monetary and fiscal policy and adjust the budget and the economy to the new conditions," the minister said, calling on the government to concentrate on main economic tasks.

Moody's Investors Service on Saturday slashed Russia's credit rating from Baa3 to Ba1, the junk status, as the ratings of seven Russian financial institutions were also lowered by Moody's on Tuesday by one notch.

Nevertheless, the Finance Ministry vowed Saturday that Russian economy was resilient to "unprecedented external shocks" in the oil and foreign exchange markets, pointing to the government's current budget consolidation and anti-crisis measures.

Also on Tuesday, director of Russian Foreign Ministry's Department of Economic Cooperation Evgeny Stanislavov said that western sanctions are directly or indirectly affecting the global competitiveness of Russian businesses, primarily the energy ones.

Except for western sanctions, Russia's energy-dependent economy last summer suffered a lot as oil revenues slumped amid the nosedive of global oil prices.

According to Moody's, Russia would experience a deep recession with gross domestic product (GDP) falling by 5.5 percent in 2015 and 3 percent in 2016.

The Public Opinion Foundation on Tuesday released data showing that 71 percent of Russians thinks the country is struggling with economic crisis, which is primarily reflected by the growing prices and high inflation rates. Endite