Plans to defeat Russia have failed: Putin on economic indicators

Plans to bring Russia to a strategic defeat, including in the economy, have failed, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a session of the VTB "Russia Calls" investment conference. According to him, in 2022, some countries have shown themselves to be unfriendly partners, destroying production and logistics chains with Russia.

"We often hear that these countries have set themselves the task of bringing Russia to a strategic defeat in the political, military, and economic spheres (including the economic and technological direction), of radically weakening our country's industry, finance, and service sector, of creating an insurmountable shortage of goods in our market, of destabilizing the labor market, and of reducing the standard of living of our citizens. It is obvious that these plans have failed," Putin said.

Referring to economic indicators, the Russian leader emphasized that the country's gross domestic product grew by 4.1% in January-October of this year.

"At the same time, growth is mainly concentrated in the processing branches of production, in sectors with high added value. Thus, in 10 months, our manufacturing industry has grown by more than 8%, or rather, by 8.1%," Putin said.

The Russian President also emphasized that, compared to many Western countries, the country has a record low unemployment rate of 2.3%.

"Against the background of the majority of the world's leading economies and developing countries, this indicator is the smallest. For example, in many European countries it is 7% or more," Putin said, adding that structural changes in the labor market are evidenced by the decrease in unemployment in the regions, as well as the increase in employment among young people under 25.

Vladimir Putin also announced the need to curb inflation, which requires coordinated actions by the Russian government and the Central Bank.

"Our task is to strengthen the line of long-term stable economic growth, to ensure high-quality investment dynamics in the real sector at the expense of modernization of production and increase in labor productivity. This is the main line of our development.

At the same time, of course, it is important to avoid distortion of the main macroeconomic parameters and imbalances in individual sectors, including curbing inflation. You probably know that so far it is at a fairly high level... In our case, it is 8.8% in annual terms," ​​he said.

VTB's "Russia Calls" investment conference will take place on December 4-5 at the Moscow International Trade Center. The main theme of the event is "The Future of Capital and the Capital of the Future."