Russia spreads its woes: Olive
Last edited Mon Mar 16, 2015, 06:13 PM - Edit history (1)
Russia’s economy is forecast to shrink by 5 per cent this year. Russia being a petro-economy, its ruble has collapsed in tandem with the world oil price — about 50 per cent in the past year.
The ruble collapse, the Russia-created Ukrainian crisis, and the Western-imposed sanctions in response to that crisis, have caused inflation in Russia to double since the sanctions began a year ago this month. Inflation in February was 16.7 per cent (most Western central banks try to contain inflation to less than 2 per cent).
In a fit of pique, Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to the sanctions by banning food imports from any country imposing them, including Canada, this despite Russia relying on imports for about 40 per cent of its food.
As a result, Russian food-price inflation is running at about 20 per cent, a rate likely to increase. Certain products, including French cheese and German sausage, have disappeared altogether from Russian grocery shelves.
http://www.thestar.com/business/2015/03/13/russia-spreads-its-woes-olive.html
