Russia's handling of the effects of the global economic crisis has shown that the country has become a civilized market economy, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Wednesday.

The Russian economy was hard-hit by the economic crisis in late 2008, with the Russian government devaluing the ruble and cutting spending. However, starting from the third quarter of this year, the economy has resumed growth.

Kudrin said the ongoing crisis can be compared to the transitional period in the 1990s when the economy shrank 50%, inflation soared to more than 80% a year, and household incomes plummeted 16%.

"But now we have started to live within the framework of market mechanisms and market cycles. We experienced this world cycle ourselves, and we acted in a civilized manner," Kudrin said.

The minister said the most discouraging point in 2009 was the GDP's decline by 8.5% while the most encouraging factor was Russia's exit from recession in the third quarter.

This year, Russia's inflation will end in single digits, at 8-8.9% compared with the initially projected figure of 11% while household incomes will grow 0.7%. Russia's government intends to bring inflation down to 6.5-7.5% next year.

MOSCOW, December 23 (RIA Novosti)