Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
How is it doing relatively speaking to the 2000s and if it is doing as bad as western media would like us to believe what is to blame (western sanctions, oil prices, the government, weather(snow storms) etc.)
Low oil prices led to a sharp deterioration in the exchange rate and reduce the budget. Inflation is not very high. Most of the Russians keep calm and not watching news of the economy. Heavy deterioration of the quality of life not observing.
Russia's economy is horrible. It's a resource-based economy (and all such economies have been pummeled) plus most of the developed world has sanctions on Russia, plus Russia is spending vast fortune meddling in Ukraine, Syria, North Ossetia, Chechnya, and other hot spots around the world.
How is it doing relatively speaking to the 2000s and if it is doing as bad as western media would like us to believe what is to blame (western sanctions, oil prices, the government, weather(snow storms) etc.)
Compared to the 2000s not good, the oil prices and sanctions have taken their toll, but still plenty of work available, and hardly any job losses as a result so far, especially in the low skilled sector.
I was in Petersburg last year and Moscow this year, plenty of shopping and entertainment going on, not quite the depression era food and employment lines some may like to think is occurring.
As someone said about this crisis "I'm the 90s people were lining up to buy salt and ham, now it is wasing machines and cars."
Russia's economy is horrible. It's a resource-based economy (and all such economies have been pummeled) plus most of the developed world has sanctions on Russia, plus Russia is spending vast fortune meddling in Ukraine, Syria, North Ossetia, Chechnya, and other hot spots around the world.
Russia's economy is not horrible, still in the top ten in the world, and still plenty of people, including numerous Ukrainians, flock there for work. Go to Moscow, Tula, etc and you will see plenty of construction going on for example. Their currency has taken a beating, but so has Canada as well.
Russia's foreign expenditures are not costing a fortune, even a DC think tank (rand if I recall) stated Syria only cost a billion a year and can be substained indefinitely. I doubt any other foreign expenditure is costing even close to that.
Russia gas announced 10% budget cuts, similar to the US sequestration.
Well, for the first time in my observation, Russia is actually looking more affordable than western Europe to travel to. The Canadian dollar is pitifully low right now, and even still, I can buy twice as many Roubles as I've ever been able to any time before last year. I'm looking at hostels in Petersburg for as little as $6 CAD. Compare that to Brussels, where the cheapest is around $30 CAD.
Someone else already touched on this, but both Canada and probably Russia are both perfect examples of how we need to diversify our economies beyond mostly oil and other resources.
Russia's economy is still very one-sided, IIRC 55% of the exports are unrefined natural resources. Russia is so heavily dependent on these that when the oil and gas prices fall, the economy takes an unproportionally heavy toll.
Russia should've focused in the early 2000's on modernising and broaden its export pallette, but Putin only reinforced the cleptocracy.
Good that Russia isn't in a depression, I'd probably vacation to Russia in the Summer.
Is the government diversifying the economy currently or are they waiting to do that later?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
