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Official paints rosy picture of "sustainable" economic growth in Russia
ITAR-TASS

Moscow, 31 December: The living standards of the Russian population are approaching the level of 1998 before the August default, the chairman of the Russian State Statistics Committee, Vladimir Sokolin, [has] said, summing up the results of the year.

Practically all spheres of the Russian economy in the outgoing year "reported quite sustainable growth, though not in the desirable scope", he said.

According to statistics, the country's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 4.1 per cent over the first nine months of 2002. The volume of industrial output increased by 3.7 per cent in the period from January to November 2002. Investments in Russia grew by 2.5 per cent and retail trade turnover by 9.1 per cent. Agricultural production showed a modest growth of 0.8 per cent.

The country's foreign trade turnover grew by 6.3 per cent in January-October as against the same period of 2001. This growth was caused primarily by the share of imports - 13 per cent, whereas Russia's exports grew by a mere 3 per cent.

According to the statistics committee's estimates, the inflation rate in Russia will total about 15 per cent in 2002. Real incomes of Russian citizens increased by 9 per cent and real wages by 17.4 per cent. The country's unemployment reduced by 14.3 per cent and amounts, according to the latest data, to 7.1 per cent of the able-bodied population.

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