VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
“We must give priority to the development of all non-oil and gas sectors. I’d like to emphasise that I’m referring to the modern industry capable of producing the competitive products required in Russia (and primarily in Russia) and the rest of the world. This economy must be based on such basic market notions as profitability, demand and return on investment. Therefore, business, and in fact only business, can become the driving force of this project. The government can only help it by creating the right conditions.”
“We are setting ourselves an ambitious goal – to make Russia one of the world’s top five economies in a decade and to increase the GDP per capita from a little over $19,000 today to $35,000 and a bit more. The living standards of our people, as well as the quality of education and healthcare must be comparable to those in the leading world economies.”
“We need to consistently work toward reducing Russia’s dependence on the commodity market. We all understand this and have been discussing it for many years. In fact our common strategic goal is to ensure a sustainable and quality growth of our economy based on the domestic market and non-resource related sector.”
“I believe that in 2010, we laid the foundation for moving forward and addressing the long-term goals of our development. There are, of course, still certain risks in the economy, but there are positive trends as well. The process of recovery in industry and the banking sector is gathering ever more momentum and force”.
“Indeed, we do have something to show for all the work we have done. The key indicators, of course, are the falling rate of unemployment and the reduction in the number of people who live below the poverty line. We have managed to make progress on this even during the global financial and economic crisis. Of course, it had something to do with the changing trends in economic development. Last year we saw a major slump, 7.9%. This year we expect a growth of about 9%, and the industry indicators are even better, a growth of more than 8% and rising real wages.”
“The proportion of Russians living below the poverty line has decreased from 13.1% last year to 12.5% this year. Is that a lot? I would say that this is a positive change. I'd like to remind you that 29% of people in Russia, or about 45 million, were living below the poverty line in the year 2000.”
“The main issue today is the development of our economy. It is in our common interest to make progress by modernising production, creating efficient and higher-paying jobs as well as enhancing labour productivity. Incidentally, this year we have seen a growth in labour productivity, not a record one but still a stable one. And we must maintain such quality of industrial development by all means. Otherwise, Russian businesses will not be able to remain competitive, and new jobs will be created abroad rather than in Russia - similar things are happening in Western Europe.”
“We are now experiencing the lowest inflation in 20 years: 3.8% for the first four months of the year. It's clear that this is very important and beneficial for encouraging investment and increasing lending, especially long-term lending. More importantly, low inflation allows us not only to maintain people's real incomes, but steadily increase them. Today we see an upward trend in key economic indices. Russia's GDP is expected to grow by 3.5%-4% in 2010, according to the forecast of the Ministry of Economic Development. There are even more optimistic scenarios, but we will proceed from that conservative estimate. Russian industry performed extremely well in April, posting double-digit growth, 10.4%, for the first time.”
“Starting in July 2009, the Russian economy has shown increasingly steady signs of recovery. According to official government forecasts, in 2010, GDP is slated to increase 3.1%. Nevertheless, there is a high probability that the growth rate will be higher. The preliminary results of the first quarter of 2010 inspire optimism. Growth in industrial production was 5.8% and real income increased 7.4%. All of this enables us to say that the recession is over in our economy. More importantly, we have very good starting conditions for further progress.”
“The economy showed clear signs of improvement during the second half of last year. GDP and industrial production began growing again, and there have been some signs of recovery in investment.”
