The government of Russia should not hope for the return of a favorable raw conjuncture, as such a situation only leads to falling standards of living and the backwardness of the country. Such opinion the Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev expressed in the article “Socio-economic development of Russia: gaining a new momentum”, published on Thursday, September 22, in the journal “Questions of Economics”.
“This strategy [relying on the export of raw materials] condemned our country to lag, lowering the standard of living, would have closed the prospects of the leading positions in the economy and social sphere”, — stated in the article.
Problems in the Russian economy, according to the head of the government, arose long before the fall in oil prices and sanctions against Russia. “The main reason for low rates of economic development are the structural problems of the Russian economy, the escalation of which was the result of the superposition of two circumstances. On the one hand, it is itself a global crisis. On the other, that the exhaustion of the model of economic growth of 2000-ies”, — he said.
At the same time the Russian economy, says Medvedev, is gradually emerging from the “Dutch disease” — depends on raw material prices and strengthening of the national currency by reducing the efficiency and competitiveness of domestic production.
As a result, in a number of industries began to rise. In particular, the Prime Minister said, we are talking about metallurgy, chemical and light industries, agriculture, individual subsectors of machine-building complex and the pharmaceutical industry.
In addition, as noted, the competitiveness of the Russian economy contributes to the program of import substitution, which gives its effect. First and foremost, this is reflected in the production of automobiles, and a decrease in imports of metals, textiles and food.
