The GDP of Russia in 2011
The analysis of factors and conditions of exit from the financial and economic crisis permits to identify the specifics of economic recovery in the 2009- 2011 period.
The specifics of the recovery growth of the past two years consists in low investment activities which hindered growth in industrial and financial sectors of the economy. In 2011, investments in capital assets amounted to 96.7%, while volumes of work in building industry and commissioning of housing, to 94.4% and 97.1% of the 2008 index, respectively.
Rapid recovery of the consumer demand was another specific feature of the 2010-2011 period. In 2011, growth in retail sales volumes by 8.1% on the 2008 figure - which growth was supported by an equal increase in the real income of the population - was a dominating factor behind recovery of the economy, including the financial sector due to intensive growth in demand in consumer loans.
In industry, exit from the 2008 crisis began with recovery of growth rates of production of primary products; such a recovery was justified by a change in the global and domestic market situation. In 2011, the index of production of primary products amounted to 104.9% on the 2008 figure. The crisis in the manufacturing industry in 2008-2009 was more protracted and it took more time for the above industry to attain a growth path. Recovery of the output volumes of the manufacturing industry to the 2008 pre-crisis level took place only in 2011.
A positive result of the year 2011 consisted in weakening of tensions on the labor market and recovery of demand in work force. Last year, the level of employment of the population amounted to 63.8% and exceeded by 1.1% the index of the previous year with a drop of 0.9% in the level of the general unemployment to 6.6% as compared to 2010.
In the 1st quarter of 2012, the Russian economy retained positive dynamics of industrial growth with improvement of the situation on the consumer and investment markets. Expansion of the domestic solvent demand was supported by growth in real income of the population and real wages and salaries. On the labor market, a drop in the general number of the unemployed with growth in employers' demand in workers declared to state employment services was observed.
О.I. Izryadnova, Head of the Structural Policy Department