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Addressing foreign and Russian business leaders at an economic
conference in the city of St Petersburg, Putin set out no new
plans to end Russia's economic downturn, worsened by Western
sanctions over the Ukraine crisis and low oil prices.
"Our access to global capital markets is limited and to that you
have to add the fall in the price of our main export
commodities," Putin told Russian politicians and rows of
businessmen.
"But the global crisis that was predicted for Russia has not
happened," he said. "We have stabilized the situation, erased
the negative swings, the negative fluctuations on the market and
are going confidently through this period of difficulties."
He said the main reason for this was that Russia had a
"sufficient supply of inner strength".
Putin struck a defiant tone over the economy but avoided the
anti-Western rhetoric in his speech that he has often used to
whip up support since the crisis in Ukraine which has put ties
with the West at their lowest ebb since the Cold War.
Promising a transparent economy and predictability for
investors, he said he was confident cooperation with the West
would continue.
Russia's central bank reduced its main interest rate by a
percentage point to 11.5 percent on Monday, inflation has slowed
from 16.9 percent in April to 15.8 percent in May, and the
rouble has risen to around 53 to the dollar after briefly
hitting 80 in December.
But investment has slowed to a trickle, capital flight has risen
sharply and the central bank says annual economic growth will
resume only around the middle of next year. It expects a
contraction of about 3.2 percent in 2015.
(Writing by Timothy Heritage, editing by Elizabeth Piper)
(Writing by Vladimir Soldatkin, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
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