December
20, 2018
15:50
Moscow
Vladimir
Putin’s annual news conference
http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/59455
The President’s
news conference was broadcast live by Rossiya 1, Rossiya 24, Channel One
and NTV, as well as Mayak, Vesti FM and Radio Rossii radio
stations.
Television
channel Public Television of Russia (OTR) and its site (http://www.otr-online.ru/online/) provided live sign
language interpretation of the news conference.
The host
broadcaster of the event is the National State Television
and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK).
* * *
President
of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues, friends.
Let us
begin our traditional end-of-year meeting that we call a news conference.
As always,
I will spend just a few brief seconds to sum up the results
of the outgoing year. A lot has been said already, but
I have the latest data reflecting the most recent results, some
just a couple of days old.
Before
the beginning of Vladimir Putin’s annual news conference.
In the first
nine months of 2018, GDP increased by 1.7 percent, while the Economic
Development Ministry expects the annual increase to total 1.8
percent. Industrial output was growing at a faster pace, totalling
2.9 percent in the first ten months of 2018, with
the annual results expected at 3 percent, up from a 2.1 percent
growth in 2017. In addition, processing industries have been growing
at a somewhat faster pace of 3.2 percent.