ECONOMIST: MONOPOLIES STILL DOMINATE RUSSIAN ECONOMY.

ECONOMIST: MONOPOLIES STILL DOMINATE RUSSIAN ECONOMY.

Ina June 24 interview with Trud, leading Russian economistPavel Bunich noted that Russia is "still a country of monopolies."Some 500 firms–0.5 percent of the total number of enterprises–stillproduce more than 20 percent of the country’s output, he said,and in some sectors, the dominance of large firms–a hangoverfrom Soviet times–is even higher. "No other country hassuch industrial concentration," he argued. In other comments,Bunich gave a depressing picture of the Russian economy: priceshave risen 4350 times since 1992, unemployment is now at 14 percent,and incomes have fallen by 30 percent in the last two years whiledifferences between the richest and poorest have increased dramatically.Bunich said that the Yeltsin economic program would do littleto ameliorate this situation and called for greater investmentthroughout the country.

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