Since the beginning of 2024, the growth of the Russian economy has accelerated compared to the indicators of 2023, and the rise in prices for goods and services in the country, on the contrary, has slowed down.
President Vladimir Putin announced this on Thursday, March 14, at a meeting with the government.
“Inflation is stabilizing - in February it was 0.7%; in the first couple of weeks of this month, inflation went to zero.
It is clear that in weekly terms this is all very approximate, everything is volatile, but nevertheless it is the way it is.
Economic growth in January was 4.6%.
GDP growth last year was 3.6%.
Overall, very satisfactory, a good indicator,” Putin said.
According to the Ministry of Economic Development, strong growth is observed in most industries.
For example, construction work in January increased by 3.9% in annual terms, the volume of paid services to the population - by 6.2%, manufacturing industry - by 7.5%, and wholesale and retail trade - by 9.1%.
At the same time, the unemployment rate fell from 3 to 2.9%.
The observed dynamics give reason to believe that all previously announced strategic plans of Russia for the coming years are realizable, Vladimir Putin believes.
For this, according to the Russian leader, a “sufficiently stable base” has been created in the country.
“Specific goals have been set in the areas of demography, healthcare, education, raising children and youth, and training.
Substantive tasks were outlined to strengthen the country’s technological sovereignty and form new digital platforms, improve cities and rural settlements, develop transport and other infrastructure... This work must be started immediately,” the head of state emphasized.
Let us recall that on February 29, as part of his message to the Federal Assembly, the President announced the launch of five new national projects: “Family”, “Long and Active Life”, “Youth of Russia”, “Personnel” and “Data Economy”.
The initiatives are aimed at increasing the birth rate and increasing the average life expectancy of Russians, providing support to the younger generation, combating labor shortages and creating digital platforms in key sectors of the economy.
© RIA Novosti / Natalya Seliverstova
New national projects have a pronounced social character and are for the most part intended to help Russia overcome the demographic crisis.
This point of view was expressed in an interview with RT by Georgiy Ostapkovich, director of the Center for Market Research at the Institute of Statistical Research and Economics of Knowledge at the National Research University Higher School of Economics.
“Every year our population decreases by 500-600 thousand people.
Therefore, the main funding in social programs is aimed at demography, fertility, education and healthcare.
Human capital is the basis of economic growth.
A highly competent and healthy person, of course, will create innovations and apply new management schemes, which will have a positive impact on the economy,” the specialist explained.
At the same time, along with investments in human capital, the country’s authorities plan to pay special attention to the development of artificial intelligence in the coming years.
As the head of the Ministry of Economic Development, Maxim Reshetnikov, said the day before, today Russia is already among the top 10 leading countries in terms of computing power, and the overall level of AI implementation in priority areas of the economy exceeds 31%.
The technology itself, according to the minister, allows increasing labor productivity by optimizing processes, reducing costs and improving product quality.
This, in turn, also helps solve the problem of staff shortages, Reshetnikov is sure.
“The main thing now is to maintain the trend towards implementation (AI -
RT
), to ensure mass use and replication of technology in industries.
Due to its scale, this is the government’s task,” added the head of the Ministry of Economy.
“Movement forward is inevitable”
In addition to the implementation of five new national projects, Vladimir Putin previously outlined to the authorities another strategic goal for Russia - to enter the top four largest economies in the world in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP) in six years.
The government also considers achieving this goal feasible, as First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov announced at a meeting with the president.
“The Russian economy ranks fifth in terms of gross domestic product in PPP terms.
Calculations show that Russia can become the fourth economy in the world, ahead of Japan, provided that sustainable growth is maintained at least 2% per year with a gradual acceleration by the end of the period to 3%.
In total, over the period until 2030, the country’s GDP needs to be increased by about 20%,” Belousov noted.
According to him, the intended result can be achieved through five mechanisms.
This is, in particular, increasing labor productivity, increasing investment, increasing non-resource exports in the markets of friendly countries, supporting small and medium-sized businesses, as well as developing import substitution.
© RIA Novosti / Host photo agency
Let us explain: GDP at purchasing power parity is the total value of all goods and services produced, calculated taking into account differences in price levels and exchange rates in different countries.
It is believed that this indicator better reflects the real situation in the economy.
“Simply put, the indicator shows how many units of the same product can be bought in each country for the same amount, for example, a dollar.
This is a relative indicator that reflects the availability of goods and services to the population based on their income.
The world’s leading economists use it to assess the real picture of the quality of life of the population,” Andrei Loboda, economist and communications director at BitRiver, explained to RT.
According to the World Bank, from 2016 to 2020, the world's five largest economies by PPP continuously remained China, the United States, India, Japan and Germany, with Russia only occupying sixth place.
However, in 2021, the Russian Federation was able to bypass Germany and has recently been closing the gap with Japan.
“Today Russia is fifth in the world, and further movement forward is inevitable.
We can indeed become fourth, but this will depend not only on the growth of our economy, but also on the situation in Japan.
If, in addition to the objectively slowing economic growth in Japan, interest rates also begin to rise, then next year the country could definitely face stagnation at best, and recession at worst.
Russia needs to take advantage of this,” Loboda emphasized.