At its 4th sitting in Moscow, Russia, the Permanent Conference of the CIS Ministers of Finance will focus its attention on the state of national economies and on a joint anti-crisis plan for 2009-2010. The Ministers of Economy and Chairmen of the Central Banks of the CIS member-states will gather in Moscow, Sergey Lebedev, Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee, told ITAR-TASS.

He stressed that the CIS Heads of State and Government “are giving close attention to the joint measures to overcome the global crisis, and the topic was also the focus of attention at the CIS Economic Forum in Moscow on March 5.” According to Lebedev, timely measures helped to overcome the most critical stage of the crisis. The CIS Statistical Committee reported economic growth in almost all the CIS member-states since this January as compared with last year. “Specifically, the GDP growth in Azerbaijan was 9.2%, in Armenia 2.4%, in Belarus 1.3%, in Tajikistan 4.2%, while an 8% average increase in industrial output was registered,” he said.

Lebedev also pointed out that, despite the upward economic trends, the crisis has not yet been overcome, and “combined efforts to tackle the crisis have to be continued now.”

T.P.