Russian economic growth will hover around 1.8 percent for the next several years unless Moscow enacts structural reforms, the International Monetary Fund said Friday. While spending on public infrastructure, and a deeply unpopular pension reform could boost business activity, “absent deeper structural reforms, long-run growth is projected to settle around 1.8 percent,” an IMF statement said, agency reports. President Vladimir Putin last year launched 12 “national projects” to modernise the economy and improve Russians’ quality of life. But economic activity has nonetheless stalled this year.
The IMF predicts growth of 1.2 percent in 2019. The World Bank last month gave the same figure, revised lower from a previous 1.8 percent. The national projects include programmes in healthcare, housing, the digital economy, environment, and others that should be carried out over five years starting from 2019, to the cost of $400 billion. More than a quarter of that is to be funded by investors.
The IMF said these projects “have potential to stimulate activity” but only if implemented effectively and combined with other reforms. “Ambitious structural reforms will be important to raise growth,” the IMF said, stressing the need for Moscow to create a “vibrant private sector.”
