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Economy—overview: After the collapse of the USSR, Russia is still struggling to establish a modern market economy and achieve strong economic growth. Russian GDP has contracted an estimated 43% since 1991, including a 5% drop in 1998, despite the country's wealth of natural resources, its well-educated population, and its diverse—although increasingly dilapidated—industrial base. By the end of 1997, Russia had achieved some progress. Inflation had been brought under control, the ruble was stabilized, and an ambitious privatization program had transferred thousands of enterprises to private ownership. Some important market-oriented laws were also passed, including a commercial code governing business relations and an arbitration court for resolving economic disputes. But in 1998, the Asian financial crisis swept through the country, contributing to a sharp decline in russia's earnings from oil exports and resulting in an exodus of foreign investors. Matters came to a head in August 1998 when the government allowed the ruble to fall precipitously and stopped payment on $40 billion in ruble bonds. Ongoing problems include an undeveloped legal and financial system, poor progress on restructuring the military-industrial complex, and persistently large budget deficits, largely reflecting the inability of successive governments to collect sufficient taxes. Russia's transition to a market economy has also been slowed by the growing prevalence of payment arrears and barter and by widespread corruption. The severity of Russia's economic problems is dramatized by the large annual decline in population, estimated by some observers at 800,000 people, caused by environmental hazards, the decline in health care, and the unwillingness of people to have children.
GDP: purchasing power parity—$593.4 billion (1998 est.)
GDP—real growth rate: -5% (1998 est.)
GDP—per capita: purchasing power parity—$4,000 (1998 est.)
GDP—composition
by sector:
agriculture:
7%
industry:
39%
services:
54% (1997)
Population below poverty line: 28.6% (1998 est.)
Household
income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest
10%: 3%
highest
10%: 22.2% (1993)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 84% (1998 est.)
Labor force: 66 million (1997)
Unemployment rate: 11.5% (1998 est.) with considerable additional underemployment
Budget:
revenues:
$40 billion
expenditures:
$63 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (1998 est.)
Industries: complete range of mining and extractive industries producing coal, oil, gas, chemicals, and metals; all forms of machine building from rolling mills to high-performance aircraft and space vehicles; shipbuilding; road and rail transportation equipment; communications equipment; agricultural machinery, tractors, and construction equipment; electric power generating and transmitting equipment; medical and scientific instruments; consumer durables, textiles, foodstuffs, handicrafts
Industrial production growth rate: -5.5% (1998 est.)
Electricity—production: 834 billion kWh (1997)
Electricity—production
by source:
fossil
fuel: 68.14%
hydro:
19%
nuclear:
12.82%
other:
0.04% (1997)
Electricity—consumption: 788.036 billion kWh (1996)
Electricity—exports: 24.2 billion kWh (1996)
Electricity—imports: 6.6 billion kWh (1996)
Agriculture—products: grain, sugar beets, sunflower seed, vegetables, fruits; beef, milk
Exports: $71.8 billion (1998 est.)
Exports—commodities: petroleum and petroleum products, natural gas, wood and wood products, metals, chemicals, and a wide variety of civilian and military manufactures
Exports—partners: Ukraine, Germany, US, Belarus, other Western and less developed countries
Imports: $58.5 billion (1998 est.)
Imports—commodities: machinery and equipment, consumer goods, medicines, meat, grain, sugar, semifinished metal products
Imports—partners: Europe, North America, Japan, and less developed countries
Debt—external: $164 billion (yearend 1998)
Economic aid—recipient: $8.523 billion (1995)
Currency: 1 ruble (R) = 100 kopeks
Exchange
rates: rubles per US$1—22.2876 (January 1999), 9.7051 (1998), 5,785
(1997), 5,121 (1996), 4,559 (1995), 2,191 (1994)
note:
the post-1 January 1998 ruble is equal to 1,000 of the pre-1 January 1998
rubles
Fiscal
year: calendar year
Communications
Telephones: 23.8 million (1997 est.)
Telephone
system: the telephone system has undergone significant changes in the
1990's; there are more than 1,000 companies licensed to offer communication
services; access to digital lines has improved, particularly in urban centers;
Internet and e-mail services are improving; Russia has made progress toward
building the telecommunications infrastructure necessary for a market economy
domestic:
cross country digital trunk lines run from St. Petersburg to Khabarovsk,
and from Moscow to Novorossiysk; the telephone systems in 60 regional capitals
have modern digital infrastructures; cellular services, both analog and
digital, are available in many areas; in rural areas, the telephone services
are still outdated, inadequate, and low density
international:
Russia is connected internationally by three undersea fiber-optic cables;
digital switches in several cities provide more than 50,000 lines for international
calls; satellite earth stations provide access to Intelsat, Intersputnik,
Eutelsat, Inmarsat, and Orbita
Radio broadcast stations: there are about 1,050 (including AM, FM, and shortwave) radio broadcast stations throughout the country
Radios: 50 million (1993 est.) (74.3 million radio receivers with multiple speaker systems for program diffusion)
Television broadcast stations: 11,000 (1996 est.)
Televisions:
54.85 million (1992 est.)
Transportation
Railways:
total:
150,000 km; note—87,000 km in common carrier service; 63,000 km serve specific
industries and are not available for common carrier use
broad
gauge: 150,000 km 1.520-m gauge (January 1997 est.)
Highways:
total:
948,000 km (including 416,000 km which serve specific industries or farms
and are not maintained by governmental highway maintenance departments)
paved:
336,000 km
unpaved:
612,000 km (including 411,000 km of graveled or some other form of surfacing
and 201,000 km of unstabilized earth) (1995 est.)
Waterways: total navigable routes in general use 101,000 km; routes with navigation guides serving the Russian River Fleet 95,900 km; routes with night navigational aids 60,400 km; man-made navigable routes 16,900 km (January 1994 est.)
Pipelines: crude oil 48,000 km; petroleum products 15,000 km; natural gas 140,000 km (June 1993 est.)
Ports and harbors: Arkhangel'sk, Astrakhan', Kaliningrad, Kazan', Khabarovsk, Kholmsk, Krasnoyarsk, Moscow, Murmansk, Nakhodka, Nevel'sk, Novorossiysk, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, St. Petersburg, Rostov, Sochi, Tuapse, Vladivostok, Volgograd, Vostochnyy, Vyborg
Merchant
marine:
total:
617 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 4,146,329 GRT/5,278,909 DWT
ships
by type: barge carrier 1, bulk 19, cargo 309, combination bulk 21, combination
ore/oil 6, container 25, multifunction large-load carrier 1, oil tanker
149, passenger 35, passenger-cargo 3, refrigerated cargo 16, roll-on/roll-off
cargo 25, short-sea passenger 7 (1998 est.)
Airports: 2,517 (1994 est.)
Airports—with
paved runways:
total:
630
over
3,047 m: 54
2,438
to 3,047 m: 202
1,524
to 2,437 m: 108
914
to 1,523 m: 115
under
914 m: 151 (1994 est.)
Airports—with
unpaved runways:
total:
1,887
over
3,047 m: 25
2,438
to 3,047 m: 45
1,524
to 2,437 m: 134
914
to 1,523 m: 291
under
914 m: 1,392 (1994 est.)
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Última actualització: 8 de juny de 2000