Russia Economy 2012
Economic Profile of Russia
russia, the largest country in the world has a market based economy which is ranked the twelfth largest in the world. The rapid privatization of the russian industry except for some fields like the energy and the defense domain was witnessed in the 90's economic reforms. And the economy in the country showed a shift from the state controlled one to a market based economy. Due to this change of economic set up, the russian economy faced a collapse and resulted in a big financial crisis in the 1998. But the country stood up higher than ever after managing the crisis very well and ten years after the crisis, russia has reached the "unprecedented macroeconomic stability" as quoted by the World Bank.
Different Economic Sector of Russia
The economy of russia mainly depends on manufacturing industry, agriculture, services and trade for its revenue.
Agriculture Sector Role in Russia Economy
About 10 percent of the labor force in the country is involved in agricultural field and the related sectors which credit almost 5 percent of the total GDP for the country. The modern technologies incorporated into agriculture brought about improvement in the field after the decline during the 1998 crisis and slowly russia transformed itself into a grain exporter from the grain importer status which it carried until a few decades back. Livestock and grains are the main agricultural products of the country and the northern region of the country is centered over livestock farming while the southern region concentrates on food grain production.
Russian Industries & Russia Economy
About 32 percent of the russian population is employed in the industrial sector which contributes around 34.8 percent of the total GDP of the country. The defense industry which accounts for about one fifth of the manufacturing jobs in russia ranks second in conventional arm exporting. The defense sector also employs more than 2.65 million people of the country. russia also has other manufacturing industries which are well developed, like the chemical industries, automobile industries and the electronic industries. Steel, aluminum and nickel industry are some of the important metal industries in russia that also serve as a major source of income. The oil and gas production and food processing industry also contributes generously towards russian GDP.
Russian Service Sectors: Role in Russian Economy
The service sector dominates the russian economy contributing slightly more than 58 percent of the total GDP with 45 million people working in this sector. The people employed in various service industries of russian are growing each year though those in Agriculture and manufacturing sector are on a slight decline. Retail market, tourism and advertisement are some of the major service industries in russia which is also the pillar of the russian Society.
Russian Trades, Natural Resources Contribution in Russian Economy
The presence of very rich deposits of natural resources in the country has helped a lot in the economic improvement and in the trade related income of the country. More than three quarters of the export from the country are from the country's processed or unprocessed natural resources like oil, natural gas, petroleum, timber and coal. The country also exports steel and aluminum and is ranked third in the world for it. Petroleum, petroleum products, food grains, chemicals and defense arms are some of the other export goods of the country. The trade of the country was slowed down greatly due to the world wide recession in the 2008 and the annual trade related income of the country fell down to 259 billion US dollars in 2009 from 471.5 billion dollars the previous year.
The major export partner of russia is Netherlands which takes up more than 11 percent of the russian commodities and provides a market for it. Italy and Germany comes next with Italy purchasing slightly more of russian commodities for their domestic use, as a raw material for industry and for re-export purpose. Other export partners of russia are Turkey, Ukraine and Poland.
The main imported items of russia are pharmaceuticals, automobiles, machineries, meat and several other consumer products. The import into the country also fell down in the year 2009 by a value of 95 billion US dollars when compared with the year 2008.
Current Russian Economy
The GDP (Purchase Power parity) of russian has decreased and have reached 2.103 trillion US dollars from the 2.298 US dollars in 2008, though it still enjoys the title of one of the largest economy in terms of PPP. The GDP growth rate which was almost steady up to the year 2008 faced a sudden decrease of 8.5 % in 2009 and the per capita GDP of the country in the year was estimated to be 15,100 dollars.
Almost 75.8 million people in the country make up its labour force with the main concentration on the service sector. The unemployment rate and the population beneath the poverty line is comparatively high in the country with about 11 million people without a proper source of income and about 16 percent people in russia still considered to be under the line of poverty.
