Know the agreement: Putin declared the full consensus of the authorities on economic issues

The reduction in inflation has become an important achievement in 2025: by the end of December, it should drop to 6%. Vladimir Putin stated this on December 2 at the forum "Russia is calling!". In addition, the country maintains a record low unemployment rate of 2.2%. This demonstrates that the authorities are in full consensus on economic policy issues. At the same time, it is still worth working in the field of attracting investments, the president noted. Moscow also plans to take cooperation with Beijing and New Delhi to a new level. The increase in imports of Indian goods, in particular, will be discussed during the upcoming state visit of the President to the republic. What will be the growth of the country's GDP and how much of Russia's public debt is in the Izvestia article.

What was said about the key rate and the ruble exchange rate

The investment forum "Russia is Calling!" has started in Moscow. It has been held for the 16th time and is traditionally considered a platform where experts, government and business representatives discuss investments, the economy and global trends. In the modern world, such events attract much more attention, as Russia is going through a difficult economic period — we are talking about fighting inflation, living in conditions of high key interest rates and the consequences of sanctions, from which, in general, the country has already managed to recover.

Vladimir Putin traditionally participates in the forum. This time, he decided to openly tell the participants gathered at the meeting — including hundreds of entrepreneurs and investors from dozens of countries — what the state of the industry in the country is. Today, the modern world is characterized by high turbulence, which is largely provoked by uncompetitive methods of struggle on the part of some Western states, he noted. In particular, they impose illegal unilateral restrictions in order to put pressure on sovereign countries that pursue independent policies, that is, in fact, they simply eliminate competitors.

— As for Russia, it certainly feels such external pressure, of course. However, our country and our economy are successfully coping with these challenges. We will continue to build a sovereign economic policy, act on the external contour based on our own national interests, the needs of domestic business and our citizens, fulfill obligations to foreign counterparties and increase cooperation with those states that are interested in this," the president said.

Over the past three years, Russia has significantly increased the volume of trade with key partners. The head of state named China and India among them. Moreover, the parties intend to strengthen this trend using the technological component, Vladimir Putin said. The Russian leader intends to discuss these topics in detail during his visit to India, which is scheduled for December 4-5. In particular, we will talk about increasing imports of goods from the republic to the Russian market. In general, the budget for the next three years will reduce the impact of external risks and increase the share of non-oil and gas revenues.

— At the same time, it is formed in accordance with budget rules and assumes a moderate budget deficit. Look at what is being done in some EU countries. We plan 1.6, 1.3, 1.2 for the coming year," he said.

Russia's public debt is less than 20% of GDP, the president noted.

"It is still one of the lowest in the world, meaning we continue to pursue a balanced, responsible, budgetary policy and, together with consistent monetary policy decisions, we are trying to slow down price dynamics," Putin said.

How the year 2025 ends for the Russian economy

Overall, the Russian economy has achieved considerable success. Today, the authorities are in "full consensus" on economic policy issues, Putin noted. In particular, the country maintains a record low unemployment rate of 2.2%. Moreover, this indicator is considered low not only for Russia, but also for most of the world's largest economies, the president stressed. According to him, an important achievement in 2025 was the reduction in the rate of price growth in the Russian Federation.

— If inflation was estimated at double-digit rates in March, it is now below 7% in annual terms. It is expected that by the end of December it will be about 6%. That is, below the forecasts of the government and the Central Bank. I know that now experts will start calculating according to different parameters, but in general it looks like this, as I said. We hope that this trend will consolidate," Vladimir Putin said.

The president was talking about official inflation according to Rosstat, experts noted. In November, there was a downward trend week to week. In addition, seasonally adjusted inflation (excluding seasonal and one-time factors affecting prices) has already decreased to 4% in annual terms in November. Therefore, it is likely that the price increase in December may well fall to 6%, says Natalia Milchakova, a leading analyst at Freedom Finance Global. Recall that at the end of 2024 it reached 9.5%.

The Bank of Russia was mainly engaged in combating inflation, since this is a direct function of the regulator. Thus, the situation was managed to be maintained thanks to a well-thought-out fiscal policy, which was important in the context of lower prices for Russian oil. At the same time, there are still some slowdowns in the economy. In particular, the dynamics of the slowdown in GDP growth: in the first nine months of this year, it added 1%, including 0.6% in the third quarter. According to the forecast, the annual GDP growth will be in the range of 0.5% to 1%.

At the same time, Russia is working with business quite effectively today, the president noted. The business community, however, was most concerned about the key rate issue at the forum. From October 2024 to June 2025, the regulator kept it at a record high of 21%, and only in early summer began a downward course. At the last meeting on October 24, the Central Bank lowered the key rate to 16.5%, the next meeting is scheduled for December 19. In addition to the plenary session, one of the central sessions was the macroeconomic one, where the country's leading economists and financiers spoke, among them Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Head of the Ministry of Economy Maxim Reshetnikov, Deputy head of the Presidential Administration Maxim Oreshkin. The chairman of the Central Bank immediately stressed that it is impossible to explain all the difficulties in the work of the business only by the level of the key rate. Nevertheless, low inflation remains the main factor in the sustainable development of entrepreneurship today, she noted. In October, by the way, price growth slowed to 7.7%.

— If we talk about the effectiveness of the key rate, the data show that it works. It effectively restrains excessive demand and excessive lending," the head of the Central Bank emphasized.

In 2025, the economy was living in an abnormally high inflation environment, which led to a reduction in investment in various sectors, said independent expert Andrei Barkhota. For example, in the second quarter, the volume of investments in fixed assets fell to 1.5% after 8.7% in January-March. Large Russian companies have already started saving money and cutting investment programs, he said.

Among the tasks for the future, the president called for achieving higher investment dynamics, increasing investments in the development of industries in the service sector, launching new projects in industry, agriculture, infrastructure, high technology and tourism. Over the past three years, investments have grown at a faster pace: by 6.7% in 2022, by 9.8% in 2023, and by 7.4% in 2024. "This year, this trend is more modest, but overall it remains positive," he stressed.