Russian economy plummets 10.1% (in 6 months)

A depression is a 10% annual economic contraction. Russia just doubled that.

www.ft.com...

Russian economy plummets 10.1%
By Catherine Belton in Moscow

Published: July 15 2009 19:47 | Last updated: July 16 2009 15:34
Russia’s economy shrank 10.1 per cent in the first half of this year, the economy minister said on Wednesday, its worst decline since the early 1990s.

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JEEZE. I never knew it was that bad over there! They are still spending away on the military too. Does anyone have any numbers on what the US decline is?

reply to post by USamf


Well, the defense industry employs 3 million people over there, about 20 percent of the manufacturing jobs if I remember correctly. According to the industry they are inundated with orders for export and are at capacity, producing more this year than last.

Like the US military industrial complex, it is a large part of their economy and part of the reason for the military spending (of course the main reason is the need for re modernization to counter growing threats to national interests )

We are more alike than some like to think. The reason for the decline is due to plunging energy prices and the financial crisis ( a lot of the growth in recent years has been the result of foreign direct investment which has dried up.)

I wouldnt worry about russia to much.. i hear they have just struck a major oil reserve at a level that wasnt thought possible before. From what i read it seems enough to make them a world power again.

[edit on 20-7-2009 by VitalOverdose]

reply to post by Dbriefed


Putin must be desperate to do something quick.
China and India are growing.
It's too bad. Russia has a lot of valuable metals.
They have so much titanium they make entire submarines out of it.
The Alpha sub can dive deep.
Putin should do what the saudis are doing.
The saudis are building 3 NEW cities. $160 Billion each.
Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!
Each citiy will hold 300,000 people.

This is cool. Hopefully those Ruskies will stop buying brand new bimmers and mercs. I love euro cars but it's about time people stop supporting them to force them to return to their legendary reliability of old.

Lexus for the win!

Russian arms industry is the biggest exporter of terror in the world. Tin Pot Dictators need there MiG-29's, T-72's, and Ak-47's to threaten there nieghbors and people.

Russians dont need to invest in there defense industry when Nations like Syria, China, Iran, Venezuala do it for them. They have the only alternative military hardware that can par up to the West.


There are no other alternatives if your nation is building an army. Either you buy Western or you buy Russian. And most of the time Russian is equipment is cheaper and comes with no strings attached

[edit on 21-7-2009 by Spartak_FL]

Saw this earlier today in a Russian forum. I've asked for a link, but so far no reply.

Russian recession eases, data shows


MOSCOW - Capital investment and real income in Russia rose strongly in June, the Federal Statistics Agency reported on Monday, suggesting the country may be past the fiercest phase of its recession.

Capital investment jumped 11.8 percent on the month in June, the agency said, a sign that investors have regained some confidence in the country's economic stability. Capital flight had badly hurt the Russian economy, exacerbating the effects of the global credit crunch.


Other statistics released Monday also indicated that Russia's economy has passed its lowest point. Real disposable income rose 3.7 percent month-on-month and was down 1 percent year-on-year. Retail sales grew 2.4 percent.

The jobless rate shrank to 8.3 percent in June, the lowest level since December's 7.7 percent, although analysts said this could largely be explained by seasonal factors. Unemployment peaked at 9.5 percent, or 7 million people, earlier this year.

Yulia Tsyplyaeva, chief economist at Meryll Lynch, said that the overall improvement in June's statistics showed the economy was stabilizing. "We should not expect this sharp decline to continue and there are certain signs of recovery."

Russia has been weathering its worst recession in a decade following a crash in commodity prices, flagging foreign investment and a squeeze on credit markets.
Government forecasting an 5.5% to7.5 percent decline for the year.