“Russia’s entire economy is not yet posting a sustainable and long-term recovery while the spread of the coronavirus is affecting businesses, especially small and medium-sized companies involved in retail, transportation and consumer services,” Vladimir Putin said at an online meeting intended “to analyze key macroeconomic and business activity indicators with due consideration for the epidemiological situation in Russia and the rest of the world, and to find out what economic development tasks require extra attention,” presidential web page reports.
According to Vladimir Putin, “prices remain stable in Russia, even despite the effect of certain negative factors. As of mid-October, the inflation rate was 3.9% per annum. Consumer demand is gradually recovering. However, experts remain cautious and say that this trend may be unstable.”
As he pointed out, “the situation on the labor market remains rather difficult. In September, the unemployment rate in Russia was 6.3% — meaning there has been hardly any decrease in unemployment since August.”