SOCHI, 23 May (BelTA) - The economy of Russia and the Union State is showing an unexpectedly strong growth amid sanctions pressure, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi on 23 May, BelTA has learned.
“It is very important (you once noted this) that the economy of Russia and in general of our union is not just strengthening. It is showing an unexpectedly strong growth. Take inflation rate, unemployment figures. Inflation has turned out to be lower. The jobless rate is on decline. This is good. The Russian ruble is strengthening at a fast pace. Therefore, unexpected things are happening. Well, these things are unexpected for them. We expected them to happen. This is a time of opportunities. They (the West), without realizing it, have pushed us to actively develop our economy,” the president said.
According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, the governments of Belarus and Russia, following the instructions of the heads of state, determined the main areas in import substitution and even made preliminary calculations of how much it would cost. “It is little money. I will not say this sum publicly now, because it is still approximate. We will reach the main results in import substitution, first of all where we do have enough components and other products,” the Belarusian leader is confident. “As for security, we have already been doing a good job in the security sector, producing what our joint army needs.”
“We can only thank them for giving us an impetus to our own development. We have a huge market, we have resources, technologies. They have obviously underestimated what is happening there. They lived reading only their mass media and got the inflation rate they have now. Although they say that Putin is to blame for that. They blame Putin for everything,” the head of state said.
