Title: SHOCK THERAPY AND ECONOMIC POLICY UNDER YELTSIN | Facts and Details
Headings: SHOCK THERAPY AND ECONOMIC POLICY UNDER YELTSIN
SHOCK THERAPY AND ECONOMIC POLICY UNDER YELTSIN
ECONOMIC POLICY UNDER YELTSIN
Yeltsin’s First Wave of Economic Reforms
Shock Therapy for the Russian Economy
Problems with Shock Therapy
Hardships from the Economic Reforms in Russia
Monetary and Fiscal Policies Under Yeltsin
End of Price Controls and Hyper Inflation in the Early 1990s
Changes in Russian Exchange Rates
Politics During the Hyperinflation Period
Tight Money Policy and the Ending of Hyperinflation
State of the Russian Economy Under Yeltsin
Economic Problems Under Yeltsin

Content: Source: Library of Congress, July 1996 *]
As president of the Russian Republic, Boris Yeltsin already had advocated substantial economic reform prior to Russia's independence, in order to begin resurrecting Russia's economy from the crisis of the last Soviet years. After Yeltsin took office economic reforms such as ending price controls and the privatization of state-owned companies took place. The end of price controls resulted in a more market-oriented economy but produced hyper-inflation. Swift privatization of Russian industry produced a super rich elite and poverty-stricken masses not a middle class. Russia’s economic reformers were branded as good guys by the United States. Yegor Gaidar was the architect of Yeltsin's original economic plan. International lenders such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Paris Club of Western government lenders, and the London Club of international commercial banks have provided substantial aid, with the caveat that Russia must improve economic indicators such as its inflation rate and budget deficits. Many of the goals of the Yeltsin program were met at least partially in the early post-Soviet years, depending on which statistics are used to define economic trends. Foreign trade was liberalized significantly, and the list of Russia's trading partners became dominated by West European rather than East European and former Soviet countries.