According to the Economist Intelligence Unit,
Goskomstat - the State Statistics Committee - regularly adjusts the
formal figures up by 25 percent to incorporate estimates of the black
economy.
Russia faces a dilemma: to quash the economic underground and thus
enhance both tax receipts and Russia's image as an orderly polity - or
to let the pent-up entrepreneurial forces of the "gray sectors" work
their magic?
Russia is slated to join the World Trade Organization in 2004. This
happy occasion would mean deregulation, liberalization and opening up
to competition - all agonizing moves. Russian industry and agriculture
are not up to the task. It took a massive devaluation and a
debilitating financial crisis in 1998 to resurrect consumer appetite
for indigenous goods.
Farming is mostly state-owned, or state-sponsored. Monopolies,
duopolies and cartels make up the bulk of the manufacturing and mining
sectors - especially in the wake of the recent tsunami of mergers and
acquisitions. The Economist Intelligence Unit quotes estimates that 20
conglomerates account for up to 70 percent of the country's $330
billion GDP.
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