Transcript Document

The map of Russia

1985
The Soviet Union began to collapse
into independent nations. After years of Soviet
military buildup at the expense of domestic
development, economic growth was at a
standstill. Failed attempts at reform and a
stagnant economy led to a general feeling of
discontent, especially in the Baltic republics and
Eastern Europe.

1991
Soviet Union finally collapsed
when Boris Yeltsin seized power in the
aftermath of a failed coup that had
attempted to topple reform-minded
Gorbachev.

1998
The Russian financial crisis (also called
"Ruble crisis") hit Russia on 17 August 1998. It was
exacerbated by the global recession of 1998, which
started with the Asian financial crisis in July 1997.
Given the ensuing decline in world commodity prices,
countries heavily dependent on the export of raw
materials, such as oil, were among those most severely
hit. The sharp decline in the price of oil had severe
consequences for Russia.

Goldman Sach invented the term BRIC to
describe the Brazilian, Russian, Indian and
Chinese economies. Russian economy is growing
very fast. Russia ended 2007 with 7% growth of
GDP. Russian economy is growing annually
since the financial crisis of 1998.

Over the last six years, fixed capital investments
have averaged real gains greater than 10% per
year and personal incomes have achieved real
gains more than 12% per year.

The federal budget has run surpluses since 2001
and ended 2007 with a surplus of about 3% of
GDP. Foreign debt is approximately one-third
of GDP. The state component of foreign debt
has declined, but commercial debt to foreigners
has increasingly risen.

These achievements have raised business and
investor confidence in Russia's economic
prospects, with foreign direct investment rising
from $14.6 billion in 2005 to approximately
$45 billion in 2007.
Inflation approached 12% by yearend.
What are the perspectives of
development?




Existing mix of market-oriented policies and state
intervention will remain in place, with state control over
strategic sectors.
Tighter liquidity will dampen investment and
consumption growth, with real GDP growth slowing to
an annual average of 6.7% in 2008-09.
High energy prices, strong capital inflows and fiscal
loosening will continue to fuel inflationary pressures.
Strong imports and only moderate export growth
are forecast to reduce the current-account surplus to
around 3% of GDP by 2009.

According to the World Bank’s “Governance
Matters VI: Governance Indicators for 19962006,” published in July 2007, the level of
responsibility for the Russian government was
rated 24 out of 100, along with Mauritania and
Butan.
It is difficult to open your business

The structure of the Russian economy remains
skewed towards a few giant companies, mostly
forged from Soviet-era assets. Small and
medium-sized businesses contribute less than
15% of GDP. The cost of opening a business is
higher than in most other countries. Only 5% of
firms have been created in the past ten years,
according to the World Bank

Anti-government forces committed numerous
human rights abuses in the internal conflict in
Chechnya. They continued killing and
terrorizing local heads of administration.


There were also positive developments with
regard to human rights.
Reforms initiated in previous years continued to
produce improvements in the criminal justice
system
Population




140,702,094 (July 2008 est.)
Population of Russia
127,288,419 (July 2008 est.)
Population of Japan
My own experience!
Pioneers