Russia adds liquidity to banks

MOSCOW, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- Russia has moved to set aside $325 billion to help the country's banking industry, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said.

"To date, about $140 billion has been made available," Putin said in Moscow at the economic organization EurAsEC. "In all, up to $325 billion has been reserved for these purposes," he said.

Speaking about the economy, Putin said inflation "reached 12.5 percent in the first 11 months, and is expected to hit 13.5 percent by the end of the year," Novosti reported Friday.

He expected the country's gross domestic product would end 2008 at 6 percent, while personal incomes would be up 7 percent.

Unemployment, however, has risen 8 percent from a year ago, Putin said. The official count of unemployed workers in Russia reached 4.6 million in October, he said.