Fears exaggerated over Russian economic crisis: minister
Xinhua, April 8, 2015 Adjust font size:
Fears over the extent of economic crisis in Russia appear to be exaggerated, Minister for Economic Development Alexei Ulyukayev said Wednesday.
Those fears are caused by the rapid devaluation of the national currency ruble last fall, Interfax news agency quoted him as telling the Russian Parliament.
The minister pointed out that at the end of 2014, those fears resulted in raging inflation, rise of interest rates, shrinking of consumer demand and decrease of investments.
According to Ulyukayev, worries seem rather subjective as the exchange rate is returning to the level of under 55 rubles per U.S. dollar.
High consumer inflation up to 0.3 percent week-on-week would continue for some time, but public sentiment is improving, Ulyukayev said, adding that Russia's GDP decline in 2015 would not exceed 3 percent.
Late in March, Ulyukayev gave optimistic forecast of Russian economic development in 2015, arguing the economy has bottomed out.
In particular, Ulyukayev put the inflation rate at 12 percent for 2015, while the government forecast the annual inflation will reach 16.7 percent, compared with 11.4 percent last year. Endi