{"id":138499,"date":"2025-05-28T11:26:07","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T11:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/138499\/"},"modified":"2025-05-28T11:26:07","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T11:26:07","slug":"russia-economy-meltdown-as-country-runs-out-of-potatoes-while-prices-rise-92-world-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/138499\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia economy meltdown as country \u2018runs out of potatoes\u2019 while prices rise 92% | World | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russian president Vladimir Putin<\/a> has acknowledged crop shortages as pressure on the country\u2019s economy continues to mount. Pressure is mounting on Russia<\/a> amid labour shortages, international sanctions, record interest rates,<\/a> and inflation, but Putin\u2019s admission of shortages of key crops marks a milestone in the nation\u2019s woes.<\/p>\n

Speaking yesterday in a televised meeting, he said: \u201cYesterday, I met with representatives from various business sectors, including agriculture. It turns out that we don\u2019t have enough potatoes. \u201cI spoke with Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko<\/a>. He said, \u2018We\u2019ve already sold everything to Russia<\/a>\u2019.\u201d Potato shortages have become a serious problem in neighbouring Belarus<\/a>, with supplies limited in stores.<\/p>\n

Across Russia<\/a>, prices for the produce have soared, with state statistics agency Rosstat claiming that prices rose by 92% last year.<\/p>\n

Since the beginning of the war, potato prices have risen at a higher rate than any other food item, with year over year prices climbing to 167% by May 2025.<\/p>\n

The surge in prices follows a year where harvests across the country have been poor due to unseasonal frosts and drought.<\/p>\n

Last year, the country produced 7.3 million metric tons of potatoes, 1.2 million less than it made in the year before.<\/p>\n

The crisis has led to calls for the state to begin regulating the retail price of potatoes.<\/p>\n

Deputy State Duma Speaker Boris Chernyshov said: \u201cPotatoes are sometimes called the second bread.<\/p>\n

\u201cSharp price fluctuations in such a socially significant product place a heavy burden on the budgets of millions of families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Problems with potatoes are symbolic of a wider turmoil within the Russia<\/a> economy, with the country\u2019s GDP growth falling dramatically<\/a> in the first quarter of 2025.<\/p>\n

According to Rosstat, the country\u2019s GDP rose by just 1.4%<\/a> year-on-year, three times less than in the final quarter of 2024.<\/p>\n

The figure is also four times less than the same point last year and represents a decline of around \u00a355 billion in GDP as Putin continues to try and fund his war effort.<\/p>\n

Rosstat said Russia<\/a> had a GDP of 201.2 trillion roubles (\u00a31.87 trillion) in 2024.<\/p>\n

It comes after a new report suggests Russia<\/a>‘s claims of economic strength are “misleading”, with the country in fact spiralling towards a banking crisis.<\/p>\n

Moscow has doggedly insisted that its economy has only experienced a minor annual shortfall of 2% since the war in Ukraine<\/a> began, despite pouring huge amounts of money into its military budget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russian president Vladimir Putin has acknowledged crop shortages as pressure on the country\u2019s economy continues to mount. Pressure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090],"tags":[51,1700,60365,332,60367,2044,36462,60366,16,15,333],"class_list":{"0":"post-138499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-potatoes","11":"tag-russia","12":"tag-russian-drought","13":"tag-russian-economy","14":"tag-russian-inflation","15":"tag-russian-interest-rates","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-vladimir-putin"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114585218808698735","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}