"Today, I can say that we have entered or are entering a real, full-fledged economic crisis. Next year we will feel it clearly," - former finance minister Alexei Kudrin.
Kudrin said falling crude prices only partly accounted for the plunge in the rouble - which has fallen particularly steeply since autumn as concerns increased that the sanctions would prevent Russian companies from meeting debt obligations because they cannot access Western capital.
Kudrin forecast a series of defaults among medium and large enterprises, -- though banks were more likely to be supported by the state -- which is likely to result in rating agencies downgrading Russia's debt to "junk" status.
Russia announced plans to impose a heavy tax on grain exports since rouble volatility and high global prices have caused exports to spike. Russian news agencies reported Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told a meeting with officials that the country needed to hang on to its stocks.
While the currency may stabilize in the first quarter of next year, its decline will likely help to push inflation to a rate of 12-15 percent in 2015, Kudrin said. The central bank envisages next year's inflation at around 8 percent.
And even if the price of oil rose to $80 per barrel, gross domestic product was still likely to fall by more than 2 percent in 2015, Kudrin said. At $60 per barrel GDP would decline by 4 percent or more, he added, echoing the central bank's latest assessment, published last week.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/22/us-russia-crisis-idUSKBN0K011920141222?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNewsRussian bear continues to get its berries kicked...yeah, that's a shame. Oh, and that wheat thing? Yeah, jacking up prices on your customers and making them pay for your own stupidty I bet goes over real well, which the idiots acknowledge with their "needing to hang onto stocks" statement. Who do you plan to pass the cost onto next? You're own people?
Russia is in a heap of shat and one of the few options Vlad the Nation Inhaler has shown a propensity for is territorial aggression. Could be more of that coming...