This file photo of September 4, 1998 shows agiotage on wholesale market in time of financial collapse.
Photo: Sergey Mikheev
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Decade Is No Term for Default
The number of people apprehending relapse of the August 17, 1998 default had been going down since 1999. But the trend has changed with the pollsters registering more and more pessimists today.
The pessimists accounted for 27 percent of respondents in 2007, but as many as 37 percent apprehend it today, signaled the August 2-3 poll of Public Opinion Fund dedicated to the 10th anniversary of default in Russia.
No more than 36 percent of respondents gave positive answer when asked whether they remember the events of August 1998, and no more than each fifth uttered the word “default,” while the remaining spoke of the crisis or mentioned its certain manifestation – inflation, ruble devaluation, the fall in deposits.
But after being reminded of August 17, 1998 default, 52 percent said they suffered from financial collapse, and 34 percent of them said their losses were hefty. Of interest is that, in 1999, 78 percent of respondents said they suffered greatly from default.
The Public Opinion Fund held its poll before the start of the military clashes with Georgia, so the results weren’t affected by recent events, signaling the roots of pessimism are long in the conscience of nation. Indeed, a third of the polled said Russia hasn’t overcome aftereffects of 1998 crisis. In general, the default apprehension of the nation could be attributed to the common belief in the national economy’s dependence on crude oil prices, to the surge in inflation in the fall of 2007 and the global financial crisis.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 18, 2008
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