Putin says state of Russia's economy is positive (VIDEO)

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with Central Bank officials on economic issues today, according to the Kremlin’s website.

The meeting was attended by Presidential Aide Andrei Belousov, First Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin and Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina.

At the meeting, the head of state said the he considers the current situation in the Russian economy to be generally positive. "The situation in the Russian economy is generally positive on key parameters," the president stressed.

Puitn noted the dynamics of industrial output since the beginning of this year. "Industrial growth has reached 3.1% in eight months, including a 3.8% increase of manufacturing," the head of state stressed.

He also mentioned the performance of enterprises and organizations in terms of fixed capital investments that went up by 3.2% in the first half of 2018. "Freight turnover is also rising (3% in eight months), same as retail trade (2.7%)," the Russian leader said, adding that "those are important indicators not only of business activity, but also of consumer demand."

Putin considers fueling higher growth rates and a faster wage and real income growth to be a systemic task in the economy. "The systemic task is to reach higher economic growth rates, maintain investment activity, spur the development of manufacturing, small and medium-sized businesses, non-resource high-tech export, fuel faster growth of wages and real income of citizens," he said.

President Putin has noted successful joint efforts of the government and the Central Bank on maintaining the stability of the Russian financial market.  "The financial market is holding steady, particularly thanks to joint efforts of the government and the Central Bank," Putin said. "[Russia’s] gold and foreign exchange reserves have increased by 5.7% to $459 billion since the beginning of this year."

"In short, the key parameters of the Russian economy show that the overall picture is positive," Putin stressed, noting at the same time that the systemic goal is to speed up economic growth, support investment activities, stimulate the development of manufacturing industries, small and medium-sized businesses and non-resource-based high-tech exports, and improve Russian citizens’ salaries and real income growth.

He noted that there is a positive trend here, too: between January and August 2018, people’s real disposable incomes grew by 2.2% compared with the same time period of 2017, while real wages grew by 8.4%.

"As always, we specify that this trend is not reflected in every sector of the economy, and varies from region to region; however, in general, a positive trend is in place," Putin pointed out.