Russia’s economic development minister said the country’s annual GDP growth will reach 3 to 3.5% in a couple of years, local media reported Wednesday.
“The Russian economy is already growing. Given the demographic challenges that we have faced, its growth should total 3-3.5%. I hope it will happen in a couple of years,” said Russian Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin, Xinhua reported.
The minister noted that the Russian government had taken measures to lower the country’s dependence on the volatility of oil prices, which resulted in stronger economic performance.
Russia’s central bank has kept its forecast for GDP growth in 2017 at 1.7-2.2%. Oreshkin also expects the federal budget to return to a surplus this year due to higher than expected oil prices.
Meanwhile, the Russian Direct Investment Fund intends to make significant cash injections into the Russian economy together with its partners in 2018, its CEO Kirill Dmitriev said in an interview aired by the Rossiya-24 TV news channel on Tuesday.
“We are planning investments in technologies, which will total up to 25% of the funds invested by the RDIF. We have already injected over a trillion rubles into the Russian economy jointly with partners, which is why the issue is about considerable funds. Obviously, our partnership with leading sovereign funds will allow us to make joint investments worth billions of dollars into the Russian economy in 2018,” he said.
“We expect positive and lucrative investments, which means a good year,” Dmitriev concluded.
