The Russian economy's growth this year might exceed the forecast by the Ministry of Economic Development. The head of the ministry, Maxim Oreshkin, announced that at a meeting with Vladimir Putin. According to the minister, the inflation peak has already been overcome. By the end of the year, the GDP is expected to boost its growth. They also discussed the new strategy of the administration's work with regions and investors.
Our observer Alexey Petrov has the details of what this strategy consists in and what results it's expected to give soon.
The president and Maxim Oreshkin discussed economic development in detail. They focused on the key figures and the most important targets.
Vladimir Putin: Let's begin with macroeconomic indicators, of course.
Maxim Oreshkin, Minister for Economic Development: If we look at the figures from 2018, they don't look bad in general. The GDP growth was 2.3%.
- It's higher than we expected and forecast, right?
- It's the highest figure since 2012, so we gradually increase it by outperforming the forecasts a little.
The Ministry hasn't revised the forecast for this year's economic growth yet. But it'll probably have to do it. The Ministry of Economic Development thinks that the final figure will be higher than planned. However, the strategic task is of a much larger scale: the economy should grow by over 3% per year. A lot depends on capital inflows to here. Last year, the growth of investments was over 4%. Some industries, such as the processing industry, became real champions. Investors are actively investing in agriculture.
The government pays special attention to the indicator of inflation.
Maxim Oreshkin, Minister for Economic Development: "Inflation reached a maximum of 5.3% in March. But we estimate that inflation will be the lowest this year. Inflation has overcome its peak and will begin to slow down now. And the economic growth will begin to accelerate by the end of the year".
The Cabinet of Ministers focuses on the development of the regions. They determined 15 indicators, which show how things are going on, if there's a gap, and where it is. But it's important to not only set a goal but help achieve the necessary changes at the local level.
Maxim Oreshkin, Minister for Economic Development: As to the labor market and investments, we now describe the current state and what is to be achieved by 2024 in detail. And we look at specific measures which should be taken in the region to reach those figures.
Vladimir Putin: So you actively work on it with the regions, right?
- Yes, we work with the regions that have low economic indicators. We've selected ten regions. We'll appoint a handler in the government for every such region.
The Republic of Tyva has already become a pilot region. Minister Oreshkin will be personally responsible for it. They'll pay special attention to the implementation of national projects. They'll use the accumulated experience in other regions then.
Lifting administrative barriers is another important nuance. Many of them are already in the past. As a result, Russia rose to the position of 31st in Doing Business's world ranking. It gained almost 20 places in three years. The administration intends to do everything for entrepreneurs to be able to work even more comfortably.
Alexey Petrov, Yulia Shchedrova, Maria Samsonova for Vesti.
