Kudrin: Poverty in Russia may fall 30% at GDP growth rate of 3.5%

MOSCOW, Oct 10 (PRIME) -- Poverty in Russia will fall by only about 30% of the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of over 3.5% despite the goal of a 50% reduction set by President Vladimir Putin, Audit Chamber head Alexei Kudrin said on Wednesday.

“The poverty rate is really very high… all the possibilities, even if the GDP growth rate is raised to over 3.5%... will result in a 30% reduction of poverty in six years. The president has set a more ambitious task of reducing it by 50%,” he said.

He added that the Audit Chamber sees no ways to accomplish the task yet.

The central bank expects economic growth this year at 1.5-2%.

Kudrin also said that additional sanctions against Russia may make many goals set by the president unfeasible and even trigger economic recession so the state’s foreign policy should be aimed at decreasing international tension.

“The sanctions problems create serious risks for the growth rates in the next few years,” he said.

“The central bank, the ACRA already have scenarios under which the sanctions that are being considered now … can lead to recession next year. We must clearly see that if the sanctions are beefed up, the goals set by the president become unrealistic by many indicators.”

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