Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday praised the government's efforts to cope with the current economic crisis and said it was too early to curtail anti-crisis measures.

Medvedev, at a government meeting on economic issues, said the Economic Development Ministry had noticed signs of recovery.

"These changes occurred as a result of the stabilization in the world economy and the large-scale and complex anti-crisis measures that our government was implementing," Medvedev was quoted as saying by the Itar-Tass news agency.

Citizens were given timely assistance in getting new jobs and retraining and, in a number of cases, they were given special support, the president said.

Medvedev also said it's necessary for the government to continue anti-crisis policies.

"These are only general signs of improvement so far. It is too early to talk about stable positive trends," he was quoted as saying by the Inter fax news agency.

The Russian economy, heavily dependent on exports of energy and raw materials, has been hit hard by the global economic downturn.

Russia's gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 10.1 percent in the first half of this year and the country is estimated to run a budget deficit of 9.4 percent of GDP this year, its first deficit in a decade.

(Xinhua News Agency September 10, 2009)