Russia’s economy has shown indications of overheating, leading to high inflation, said President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, adding that the authorities have been tasked with tackling the situation.
Russian economy
“There are some issues here, namely inflation, a certain overheating of the economy, and the government and the central bank are already tasked with bringing the tempo down,” Putin said during his annual phone-in, reported Reuters.
Putin said he backs the Bank of Russia’s tight monetary policy but suggested that the central bank could have acted more timely. Before the phone call, he talked to the central bank’s governor, Elvira Nabiullina, who said that inflation in the current year will exceed the 8.5% estimate to reach 9.2%-9.3%.
He added that the economic growth rate will fall from 4% in the current year to 2%-2.5% in 2025 due to tight monetary policy and government measures aimed at cooling down the economy.
The Russian president said the central bank could have used other instruments to cool down the economy while the government could have made efforts to boost supply by working with different sectors. “It would have been necessary to make these timely decisions. This is an unpleasant and bad thing.”
He also blamed Western sanctions and a bad harvest caused by extreme weather for contributing to the high prices. Russia’s consumer price index reached 8.9% in November on a year-on-year basis, rising from 8.5% in the prior month, largely driven by rising food prices.
Situation in Syria
Responding to a question on the situation in Syria, Putin rebuffed the impression that Russia had failed in the country and said that Moscow has made new proposals to the new leadership in Damascus to maintain its military bases.
In his first public comments on the matter, Putin said that he has not yet met former Syrian President Bashar Al Assad since his arrival in Moscow after his overthrow, adding that he plans to do so. Putin added that Russia has communicated to other countries that they can utilize its air and naval bases in Syria for the flow of humanitarian aid.
Trump meeting
Putin said that he is ready to hold a conversation or meeting with the US President-elect Donald Trump, if he wants it, reported the state-run TASS news agency. He added that he doesn’t know when it will materialize because Trump hasn’t said anything about it, and he hasn’t talked with the President-elect for more than four years.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zaharova said earlier that Moscow is ready for contacts with Washington for the resolution of the Ukrainian crisis, but no “serious proposals” have yet been received from the Trump team.
What to watch for
The Russian central bank is widely expected to raise its key interest rate by a significant 200 basis points to 23% in its meeting on Friday, its highest level in over two decades.
