BOFIT Viikkokatsaus / BOFIT Weekly Review 2016/25
Most other themes of the speech were drawn from both of the main programmes for growth presented recently (see below). Putin stressed reducing the budget deficit and budget dependency on oil revenues. He set the long-term economic growth target of Russia to 4 % a year. This could be achieved, he noted, through e.g. increased labour productivity and a better business environment. These themes have been reiterated for several years now, indicating Russia’s leadership is well aware of the country’s economic problems but still lacks practical answers to deal with them. Putin announced that he was establishing a presidential council on strategic development and priority projects to make reforms more effective and seeing that major projects get implemented.