Russian natural resources
Russia is one of the world’s most resource-rich countries. In 2005, the World Bank put the country in first place for total value of subsoil wealth (oil, gas, coal and minerals); a more recent estimate puts the value of the country’s natural resources at US$75.7 trillion — again, in first place. Apart from gas, oil and coal (proven reserves: 1st, 7th, 3rd place respectively; production: 1st, 3rd, 6th place), Russia is in the world’s top ten for a wide range of minerals, including iron, nickel, platinum, gold and diamonds. Natural resources have brought Russia economic wealth. The World Bank estimates that natural resource rents (calculated as production value minus costs) contributed around 18.7% of GDP in 2012 (13.9% from oil and 2.3% from gas). The impact on exports is particularly significant: in 2013, 68% of these came from oil and gas (21% petroleum products; 33% crude oil; 14% natural gas); ‘metals and precious stones’ accounted for a further 11.1%. Moreover, oil and to a lesser extent gas contribute around 50% to the federal budget (mostly extraction taxes and export duties).
Latest tradingeconomics.com (american investors website) states that Russia has the lowest Debt to GDP Ratio of all G20 countries at 12.60%,
The Euro area average is 86.70% and the US Debt to GDP Ratio is 105.40%. Many areas of Russia are still very much underdeveloped, but compared with the 90’s the positive transformation that has taken place in terms of infrastructure and economic development is unbelievable.
The Debt to GDP Ratio in Russia reached an all time high of 92.10 percent in 1999. And unlike most G20 Economies, Russia has learned from that terrible time and were using it’s vast natural resources the last 19 years to concentrated on largely paying off most of it’s external debt to bring it down to as of now to 12.60%.
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Posted by edwin | January 9, 2019, 23:17