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![Vladimir Putin held a meeting on economic issues to discuss the anti-crisis plan prepared by the Cabinet on 26 January 2015 in Moscow [PPIO]](http://thebricspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/41d531a112a80a31df71.jpg)
Vladimir Putin held a meeting on economic issues to discuss the anti-crisis plan prepared by the Cabinet on 26 January 2015 in Moscow [PPIO]
Speaking at the meeting with Cabinet ministers and the head of the Russian Central Bank, Putin said Russia’s anti-crisis plan should ensure acceptable pace of inflation, controllable level of foreign debt and maintain reserves.
Ratings agency S&P cut Russia’s sovereign credit rating to junk status on Monday, bringing it below investment grade for the first time in a decade. The US-based ratings major warned Russia’s economic growth prospects have worsened, hit by low oil prices and Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.
The Russian President has stressed that only microeconomic stability could attract private investors. He also said the federal budget will have to be optimized using the experience of 2008 financial crisis.
“Of course, it imperative to consider optimising budget expenditures, as we did in 2008 and 2009, to increase financing in certain areas and look at what can be done for certain parameters in the long-term perspective – I mean, what can be prioritised. In other words, we need to once again examine our priorities,” Putin said on Monday.
Putin ordered the plan to be submitted to the parliament within a week.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday called for the swift passage of an anti-crisis package, for which the government allocated 1.375 trillion rubles ($21 billion) to help the country weather the current economic hardship.
Source: Agencies
