Russia (bbabo.net) - Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, dear colleagues!

I think we can start working.

You are a bit far away, but I hope that our technical staff set everything up properly. I hope you can hear me well, and I look forward to hearing you as well.

Dmitry Sergeevich, I think that you can start working right away without any lengthy introductory words, it will be more useful and interesting for everyone.

During our meeting, I will try to answer your questions and, without any introductory words, satisfy your curiosity and inform you about the results of this year and what we expect in the near future, and what we will strive for in our work.

Dmitry Sergeevich, please.

D. Peskov: So, let's start.

From the very beginning I would like to give the floor to the absolute doyenne of the Russian journalistic corps - one of the leaders of the Interfax agency, Vyacheslav Konstantinovich Terekhov.

Please give me a microphone in the first row.

V. Terekhov: Good afternoon, Vladimir Vladimirovich!

Somewhat muffled will be, as radio operators say, mixed sound.

In connection with the fact that you said that you will talk about how the economy will develop, the world has been waging a global "war" against the coronavirus for these two years, and now it will be against the omicron, probably. How did this war affect the Russian economy? And it practically affected all people. How to get out of this economic crisis, out of this pit, what are the drivers? Is it necessary to expect a complete vaccination of the population in order to talk about the possibility of successful economic development?

And the most important question, of course: how do you assess the work of your main headquarters - the Government and the Central Bank - during this "war"?

Excuse me, I just talked about the Central Bank and remembered that the last, apart from the last, press conferences three or four, my question was always about the Central Bank - somehow it happens by chance.

Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: If we fully answer all your questions, I think that if we manage to answer them, we can end the press conference at this, because they are very voluminous and, in fact, on the main directions lie our work - not only ours: you said that the whole world was fighting against coronavirus infection.

This struggle continues, we know about the dangers of the spread of "omicron" - a new strain. I think that during today's meeting we will be able to talk about this more.

As you know, a group of our scientists and specialists is in the Republic of South Africa, where, in fact, this strain was discovered by our colleagues. They work there and work successfully. I want to say it again, to thank our colleagues from South Africa.

As for how this situation affected the Russian economy and what we expect in the near future, in general we have already spoken about this many times.

It will not be difficult to say that our economy, faced with the challenges of coronavirus infection and the necessary forced restrictions in this regard in the economy and in the social sphere - I am also ready to talk about this in more detail in the course of our work today - nevertheless turned out to be more mobilized and ready for such shocks than many other developed economies in the world, if you count the five, six, seven or ten leading economies in the world, even if you take the twenty.

Our economy has contracted three percent, which is much lower than in many of the world's leading economies, and we have recovered much faster than other countries.

You know these figures, even last year we could talk about these tendencies, but today, naturally, I took the plate, now I’ll tell you about it so as not to invent anything here: GDP growth of 4.5 percent is expected this year ... It is now 4.6 [percent] through October. Industrial production is growing at a rate of five percent, processing, processing [industry] - 5.2.

Our grain harvest is slightly less than last year, due to weather conditions: it was 133.5, it became 123 [million tons], but this is a very good result, which will give us the opportunity not only to provide for ourselves, but also to keep us very significant export potential.

Fixed investment is 7.6 percent [growth] as of November. In general, six are expected for the year, there was a decline last year - 1.4.

Very good performance in construction, record performance - 90 million square meters. This is the first time such a result has been achieved in the recent history of Russia. I would like to congratulate all workers of the construction complex with this result: both top officials and those who work directly on construction sites.

The average monthly wage started to rise in real terms, thank God. Changes in the real disposable income of the population: if it was minus two percent, then this year we expect growth.

Let's talk about inflation, of course. Eight percent inflation is expected.

bbabo.Net