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Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting on economic matters to discuss the main factors of economic growth and developments in the real economy sector.

The meeting was attended by Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Anton Vaino, Presidential Aide Andrei Belousov, First Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov, Minister of Economic Development Maxim Oreshkin and Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues.

As per tradition, we have gathered in this format to discuss the key factors that influence our economic progress and developments in the real economy sector.

I would like to remind you that Russia’s GDP increased by 0.7 percent in the first six months and that industrial growth was 2.6 percent in the period of seven months, including 2 percent in manufacturing.

These are certainly positive results, yet we are not satisfied with this trend. We must make economic growth more sustainable and more dynamic. Today we will discuss the additional decisions we need to take to achieve this.

A positive factor I would like to mention is the inflation rate. Annual inflation is gradually moving down to the target figure and is currently around 4.5 percent.

However, people’s actual income is growing very slowly even despite these developments and despite wage increases. This can only cause concern.

I would like you to speak about the practical steps we should take to increase people’s incomes and, overall, to ensure a more sustainable growth of our economy.

Let us begin.

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