“Russia is waiting for large wave of redundancies’ – NU.nl

"Russia is waiting for large wave of redundancies' – NU.nl

The government should reconsider how fast and in what areas of financial reserves are used. That the former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Saturday at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

“I predicted tough times, but did not think it would be this bad. Consumer prices are sharp increased, large layoffs have begun. In construction in Moscow are already 100,000 people laid off and we are seeing signs of a crisis in the auto industry, ” said Kudrin.

Russia is hit hard by Western sanctions, the depreciation of the ruble and oil prices collapsed in each other. Because the ruble has lost half of its value against

the dollar since the beginning of last year, Russia is increasingly difficult to borrow money on western capital markets.

Kudrin expects the Russian economy to shrink by 4 percent this year, if oil prices remain at current low levels. The Central Bank of Russia last month predicted a downturn of 4.5 percent for 2015. That Western sanctions will be lifted soon, according to Kudrin unlikely

This you should know about the World Economic Forum

By:. AFN