The 2008 Global Financial Crisis and its impact on Russia.

In 2008, the global financial and economic crisis began, which manifested itself in the form of a strong decline in the main economic indicators in most advanced economies, which subsequently turned into a global recession (slowdown) of the economy.

The emergence of the crisis is associated with a number of factors: the general cyclical nature of economic development; the overheating of the credit market and the resulting mortgage crisis; high commodity prices (including oil); the overheating of the stock market. The precursor to the 2008 financial crisis was the U.S. mortgage crisis, which affected high-risk mortgages in early 2007. The second wave of the mortgage crisis occurred in 2008 and spread to the segment, where loans issued by banks are refinanced by state-owned mortgage corporations. As a result of the fall in property prices by 20%, US homeowners lost almost $ 5 trillion. The most significant outcome of the first wave of the crisis was the collapse in May 2008 of the fifth largest American investment Bank Bear Stearns, which ranked second in the United States among underwriters of mortgage bonds. The mortgage crisis in the United States caused the liquidity crisis of world banks in September 2008: banks stopped issuing loans, in particular loans for the purchase of cars. As a consequence, sales of auto manufacturers began to decline. Three auto giants Opel, Daimler and Ford reported a reduction in German production in October. From the real estate sector, the crisis spread to the real economy production began to decline. September 15, 2008 the American bank Lehman Brothers filed a bankruptcy lawsuit and a request for protection from creditors. The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers was the largest in U.S. history. Never before has such a powerful financial institution failed. The collapse of the fourth-largest U.S. investment Bank had negatively affected major stock prices in many countries and negatively affected the cost of energy. Oil prices fell from $ 147 per barrel to less than $ 40. The stock market crash in October 2008 was a record for the US market in the previous 20 years, for the Japanese market - in history.

During the two years of the crisis (2008-2009), the largest respectable investment banks with a hundred-year history burned down. Solomon Brothers and Morgan Stanley changed their status: investment activity was replaced by commercial. Major companies such as General Motors, Chrysler and others had turned to their governments for help. In fact, private debt was nationalized: the largest financial institutions-Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (USA), holders of $ 14 trillion in private mortgage debt, were bought by the state. Immediately after the United States, the European and Russian economies were severely affected by the financial crisis. The first victims of the crisis among Russian banks in September 2008 were "KIT Finance" and Svyaz-Bank. To repay debts to counter parties Gazprombank issued "KIT Finance" a loan of 22.5 billion rubles. In September 2008, Svyaz-Bank sold 98% of its shares to Vnesheconombank. VTB Bank, among a number of other Russian banks had received state support. At the height of the crisis, Vnesheconombank received a 10-year subordinated loan worth 200 billion rubles. In addition, VTB attracted funds from the Bank of Russia on collateral and unsecured auctions. The crisis quickly spread to the real sector of the economy. Capitalization of Russian companies decreased by three quarters in September-November 2008; gold and foreign exchange reserves decreased by 25%. The financial crisis reduced public confidence in banks and led to an outflow of deposits. In September 2008, the balances of individuals in the 50 largest Russian banks decreased by 54 billion rubles, which amounted to 1.2% of the total. The outflow of depositors from the banking system reduced the financial stability of banks, which led to the bankruptcy of several large investment and commercial banks. Layoffs of workers, reduction of wages began.

The financial crisis also triggered a drop in oil prices. There were problems with investing in this sector, as well as the risk of slowing down the implementation of projects to increase oil production. There was a reduction in the growth rate of the Russian economy. For example, when the economy grew by 8.7% in 2007, for the first 9 months of 2008, growth was 4.9% compared to the corresponding period of the previous year. 2008 was the last year of growth of the working-age population. As a result of the financial crisis, government infrastructure and construction projects have declined.

Vita V.