Is August 2015 really black for Russia? - Russia Direct
In the popular view, the current economic situation in Russia is reminiscent of the crisis of August 1998 . At that time, against the backdrop of falling raw materials prices and the Asian contagion that initiated a global financial crisis,... On the surface, both August 1998 and August 2015 exhibit similar features, including the decline in world energy prices , the depreciation of the ruble , and the collapse of global stock markets. Direct analogies are hardly appropriate, though, primarily because the Russia of 2015 is strikingly different from the Russia of 1998. Today’s Russia vs. yesterday’s Russia In the mid- and late 1990s, Russia’s economy was going through hard times... Such was the state in which Russia faced the Southeast Asia economic crisis of 1997 and the fall in oil prices that followed. Today, Russia is different. The causes of the economic crisis are also different. · The slowdown in economic growth that Russia has experienced since 2012 is due to a large extent to falling energy prices. Source: www.russia-direct.org
