MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Inflation in Russia has reached a steady downward trajectory as the government kept its focus on long-term development plans during instability, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.
"We reached the trajectory of a steady decline in inflation, which I consider extremely important. As of March 13, it was 4.4 percent year-on-year," Putin said at a Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs session.
He noted that growth rates are returning to positive values and industrial production, including manufacturing, is increasing.
"During the period of economic instability, we did not lose sight of long-term development plans. Now that the period of economic adaptation to the new conditions is almost complete, these tasks are becoming key," Putin said.
Russia has been hit by a downturn that began in early 2015 after falling oil prices and Western anti-Russia sanctions took bite. The country's GDP fell 3.7 percent in 2015, according to the Russian Federal Statistics Service Rosstat.
