Putin says Russia able to rank among world’s top 5 economies

MOSCOW, Dec 20 (PRIME) -- Russia will be able to occupy the fifth position in the world in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), but it needs to join another economic league, President Vladimir Putin said during a traditional annual press conference on Thursday.

“We need to join another economic league. Not only in volume terms. I think it is quite possible for us to occupy the fifth position (by GDP in the world). We used to be number five by the size of the economy, by the purchasing power parity. And I think we will do it,” he said.

Russia will be unable to ensure the necessary economic breakthrough without changing the structure of its economy, he said.

“This is what the national projects are targeted at, and what the huge funds that I’ve mentioned will be invested in,” the president said and added that implementation of the national projects should be effective.

All available resources should be concentrated on the core development directions, Putin said.

“We need a breakthrough, we need to leap into a new technological state, the country will have no future without it. This is a principal issue, we should understand it. How can it be done? We need to concentrate all available resources. Find them and concentrate them on the core development directions.”

Putin called the Audit Chamber’s head Alexei Kudrin a good and reliable expert whose recommendations are valuable for him, but said that Kudrin’s assessment of Russia’s economic growth is “mechanical”.

Inflation will overshoot the target level of 4% in 2018 and will amount to 4.1–4.1% while unemployment is to fall to 4.8% from 5.2% in 2017, the president said.

Russia will have a budget surplus of around 2.1% of gross domestic product (GDP) for the first time in the past seven years, and the National Wealth Fund will grow 22% in 2018.

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