“The most important achievement of this past year is the consolidation of the trend towards steady growth. The Russian economy has overcome the effects of the crisis and has reached its pre-crisis figures in key parameters.”
“None of the developed economies will have a budget surplus this year; while Russia’s federal revenue will exceed expenditures. Inflation will be the lowest in recent history this year – 7%, which is even below the estimates. The country’s reserve funds are growing too. We have a healthy economy and financial sector and we stand a good chance of making a development breakthrough.”
“Within the next few years we will have to fundamentally change our economy. These are not our ambitions, nor a slogan, but the requirements of the day. This is a challenge that faces the entire world in general and Russia in particular. Only an efficient, competitive economy with a powerful industrial and technological base will allow us to feel confident in the constantly developing world, to reduce our dependence on complicated and turbulent processes in the world economy and guarantee our protection against global risks.”
“I should note that rates in Russia always increase on January 1. This creates expectations of inflation, and drives inflationary pressure from the very beginning of the year. That is why I propose to cap the increase in Russian Railways’ rates at 6% as of January 1, 2012. <…>All other increases will not take effect on January 1, 2012, but on July 1, 2012 – these include a maximum increase of 15% in gas prices and increases to keep pace with inflation on electricity, which includes grid maintenance and heating. This is in light of the fact that energy consumption declines in the warm season and consumers will find the higher prices easier to bear than in winter.”
“As the overall economic situation stabilised and post-crisis growth began, it started to pay greater attention to long-term goals rather than emergency support measures for specific sectors and enterprises. First and foremost, I have in mind projects for modernisation and re-equipment and, naturally, for promoting small and medium-sized businesses.”
“Last year Russia became the global leader in oil production, with over 500 million metric tonnes. We took over the first position, overtaking all other oil producing countries. I'd like to congratulate our oil industry for this result – 500 million tonnes of oil is exactly the quantity that we need to meet both domestic and export requirements, and we should maintain production at this level in the coming years.”
“I suppose that expanded vocational education, primarily secondary and primary education, is a priority task facing the state and the business community. We must see to it that this kind of education meets the demands of modern production. We must renew the technical base for training specialists. <…> All of us need to work to raise the prestige of industrial careers and to enhance the public significance of skilled labour.”
“We must give priority to the development of all non-oil and gas sectors. I’d like to emphasise that I’m referring to the modern industry capable of producing the competitive products required in Russia (and primarily in Russia) and the rest of the world. This economy must be based on such basic market notions as profitability, demand and return on investment. Therefore, business, and in fact only business, can become the driving force of this project. The government can only help it by creating the right conditions.”
“We are setting ourselves an ambitious goal – to make Russia one of the world’s top five economies in a decade and to increase the GDP per capita from a little over $19,000 today to $35,000 and a bit more. The living standards of our people, as well as the quality of education and healthcare must be comparable to those in the leading world economies.”
“We need to consistently work toward reducing Russia’s dependence on the commodity market. We all understand this and have been discussing it for many years. In fact our common strategic goal is to ensure a sustainable and quality growth of our economy based on the domestic market and non-resource related sector.”
