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President Vladimir Putin took part in the first meeting, Strengthening Policy Coordination and Breaking a New Path for Growth. Participants discussed the current macroeconomic situation in the world and opportunities for fostering development, including structural reform, increasing the level of industrialisation, and introducing innovative technologies.

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Opening remarks at the first working meeting at the G20 Summit

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr President, colleagues,

We are all speaking about problems and difficulties we are facing in the world economy, and it is understandable, as there are many. However, today we can see a slow yet positive trend of recovery in the global economy.

As for our country, we regard the results of our efforts as insufficient, as modest, but our economy, nevertheless, has stabilised. We have retained our reserves, considerably reduced capital flight (it decreased five-fold compared to last year); inflation has been halved. The budget deficit stands at 2.6 percent, and we have a fairly low unemployment rate of 5.7 percent. Foreign debt has been reigned in at a sufficiently low level of just 12 plus percent with a continued trade surplus: [a positive trade balance of] $45 billion is an acceptable amount for an economy of our size.

We are now witnessing modest growth in industrial production, while we expect GDP to resume growth in the very near future. We are determined to cut the budget deficit and to continue efforts to lessen the budget’s dependency on exports of hydrocarbons and raw materials.

We shall continue to pursue a balanced policy to promote macroeconomic stability, and to liberalise and improve the business climate. We are improving our legislation, tax regulation, and technical standards to incentivise companies to increase labour productivity and introduce labour- and energy-saving technologies.

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