Russia has undergone significant changes since the collapse of the Soviet Union, moving from a globally-isolated, centrally-planned economy to a more market-based and globally-integrated economy. Economic reforms in the 1990s privatized most industry, with notable exceptions in the energy and defense-related sectors. The protection of property rights is still weak and the private sector remains subject to heavy state interference. Russian industry is primarily split between globally-competitive commodity producers. In 2011, Russia became the world's leading oil producer, surpassing Saudi Arabia; Russia is the second-largest producer of natural gas; Russia holds the world's largest natural gas reserves, the second-largest coal reserves, and the eighth-largest crude oil reserves. Russia is the third-largest exporter of both steel and primary aluminum. Other less competitive heavy industries remain dependent on the Russian domestic market. Russia's reliance on commodity exports makes it vulnerable to boom and bust cycles that follow the highly volatile swings in global commodity prices. The government since 2007 has embarked on an ambitious program to reduce this dependency and build up the country's high technology sectors, but with few results so far. The economy had averaged 7% growth in the decade following the 1998 Russian financial crisis, resulting in a doubling of real disposable incomes and the emergence of a middle class. The Russian economy, however, was one of the hardest hit by the 2008-09 global economic crisis as oil prices plummeted and the foreign credits that Russian banks and firms relied on dried up. According to the World Bank the government's anti-crisis package in 2008-09 amounted to roughly 6.7% of GDP. The Central Bank of Russia spent one-third of its $600 billion international reserves, the world's third largest, in late 2008 to slow the devaluation of the ruble. The government also devoted $200 billion in a rescue plan to increase liquidity in the banking sector and aid Russian firms unable to roll over large foreign debts coming due. The economic decline bottomed out in mid-2009 and the economy began to grow in the third quarter of 2009. However, a severe drought and fires in central Russia reduced agricultural output, prompting a ban on grain exports for part of the year, and slowed growth in other sectors such as manufacturing and retail trade. High oil prices buoyed Russian growth in 2011 and helped Russia reduce the budget deficit inherited from the lean years of 2008-09. Russia has reduced unemployment since 2009 and has made progress on reducing inflation since 2010. Russia's long-term challenges include a shrinking workforce, a high level of corruption, difficulty in accessing capital for smaller, non-energy companies, and poor infrastructure in need of large investments.

Data cover general government debt, and includes debt instruments issued (or owned) by government entities other than the treasury; the data include treasury debt held by foreign entities; the data include debt issued by subnational entities, as well as intra-governmental debt; intra-governmental debt consists of treasury borrowings from surpluses in the social funds, such as for retirement, medical care, and unemployment. Debt instruments for the social funds are not sold at public auctions.

10.817% (31 December 2010 est.)

$398.2 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$268.7 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$895 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$780.6 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$759.6 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$573.2 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$796.4 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$1.005 trillion (31 December 2010)

$861.4 billion (31 December 2009 est.)

Grain, sugar beets, sunflower seed, vegetables, fruits; beef, milk

Complete range of mining and extractive industries producing coal, oil, gas, chemicals, and metals; all forms of machine building from rolling mills to high-performance aircraft and space vehicles; defense industries including radar, missile production, and advanced electronic components, shipbuilding; road and rail transportation equipment; communications equipment; agricultural machinery, tractors, and construction equipment; electric power generating and transmitting equipment; medical and scientific instruments; consumer durables, textiles, foodstuffs, handicrafts

5.01 million bbl/day (2010 est.)

60 billion bbl (1 January 2011 est.)

44.8 trillion cu m (1 January 2011 est.)

Petroleum and petroleum products, natural gas, metals, wood and wood products, chemicals, and a wide variety of civilian and military manufactures

Netherlands 12.3%, China 6.5%, Italy 5.6%, Germany 4.6%, Poland 4.3% (2011)

Machinery, vehicles, pharmaceutical products, plastic, semi-finished metal products, meat, fruits and nuts, optical and medical instruments, iron, steel

China 15.6%, Germany 10%, Ukraine 6.6%, Italy 4.3% (2011)

$498.6 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$479.4 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$519.4 billion (30 September 2011 est.)

$538.6 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$542.9 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$493.4 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$409.1 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$369.1 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

Russian rubles (RUB) per US dollar -