Russia's Small Businesses Growing?

The Moscow Times reports on a study forecasting that the share of GDP by Russian small business will double by 2009.



However, other sources question the study's conclusion. They claim small business growth has stagnated in recent years. There is even some suggestion in the article that the findings may have been deliberately inflated to suggest that the Russian economy is stronger than it otherwise is.





Consider the contrasts: Russia has a population of 145,000,000 with 892,000 small businesses. The United States, on the other hand, has just twice the population (290,000,000) yet a far greater proportion of small businesses (between 5 million and 22 million), depending on how you define small business.