Recent economic trends in the Russian economy

The Russian economy made fairly good progress in the year 2001 and 2002. In 2001 Russia's GDP increased by 5% and in 2002 it increased by 4.1%. Even though the percentage increase in the GDP in 2002 was less than that of the year 2001, the advancement was fairly satisfactory. Comparatively, the average percentage increase in GDP in developed countries was 1.5% and in the United States was 2.3 %. 2002 was the fourth year in a row that Russia observed a steady improvement in its economy …

…to 1998, nominal wages were progressively climbing and there was a decline in real income. To deal with the crisis of 1998 many firms resorted to slashing their employees' salaries in order to sustain the pressures from the shortfall in business. By mid 2001, the average nominal monthly wage per capita reported by the government was 2,867 rubles compared to roughly 1,575 rubles in January 2000 and 1,200 rubles in January 1999. In July 2001, the minimum wage per month was set at 300 rubles.