Kasyanov praises Russia's economic development - 27 March, 2003

The Russian economy has been developing at a rather good pace during the first quarter of 2003, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov announced at the opening of a Cabinet meeting today. He reported that macroeconomic parameters of the first three months of this year were better compared to the fourth quarter of 2002. The Prime Minister stated that government forecasts for this quarter had proved to be right and expressed hope that forecasts for the whole year 2003 would be correct as well. However, Kasyanov stressed that the Cabinet should take more efforts to achieve macroeconomic stability in order to prevent the possible impact of various negative factors on the Russian economy. So far the "situation is normal," the Prime Minister said.