President of Russia : January 26, 2016, 17:15 2016-01-26 Team of the Official Website of the President of Russia The Kremlin, Moscow

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Ulyukayev, we are summing up last year's results. Though it may yet be early to speak of final results, the numbers at the disposal of your Ministry are very close to what we will see in the final report.

It was not an easy year; nevertheless, we have reasons to feel somewhat optimistic regarding the current and future periods. What is the reason for this optimism?

Minister of Economic Development Alexei Ulyukayev Ulyukayev AlexeiEconomic Development Minister : Mr President, it is true, the year was economically unique in terms of the combination of unfavourable objective and subjective circumstances, starting with the situation on the market of raw materials. An unprecedented four-fold drop in oil prices and a similar drop in prices of non-primary goods, turbulence on the financial markets plus the geopolitical actions by our partners - all this created a very nervous atmosphere, of course.

Vladimir Putin: And a world economic slump.

Alexei Ulyukayev: Absolutely. Global demand dropped sharply, serious risk hotbeds appeared where nobody expected to see them, and I mean the former leaders - Southeast Asia.

It was against this backdrop, as you may remember, that last January, exactly a year ago we were adjusting our forecast in a rather nervous atmosphere, practically in an atmosphere of panic among certain market players and analysts. The expectations were most unfavourable, but nevertheless, I want to look at the forecasts and the reality.

It turns out that our forecast was very close to the actual situation.

We expected the price of oil to be at $50 per barrel, the actual figure was $51. We expected the consumer price index to be 12.2, it was 12.9 - a difference of less than 1 percent. We estimated the dollar exchange rate at 61.5, the annual average was 60.

To be continued