Official says Russian economy can grow over 2% annually

VLADIVOSTOK, Sep 6 (PRIME) -- The Russian economy can grow over 2% annually amid the current conditions of instability, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said Wednesday at the Eastern Economic Forum.

“There is such a huge instability in the world: look, the U.S. is divided in half, there is Brexit in the E.U. and negative expectations. We are in the situation where with obvious advantages the economy can grow significantly higher than 2% annually,” he said.

In its revised forecast for 2017–2020, the Economic Development Ministry raised its outlook for the gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2017 to 2.1% from 2%. The forecast was also raised to 2.1% in 2018, 2.2% in 2019, and 2.3% in 2020, while earlier the ministry expected the Russian economy to grow 1.5% annually in 2018–2020.

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