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Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia was emerging powerfully from the global financial crisis but must reduce its reliance on energy and raw materials to see off external threats to its economy. In his last annual report to Parliament before a presidential election in March 2012, Putin said inflation would not exceed 6.5 to 7.5 percent in 2011 and that the gross domestic product grew by 4.4 percent in the first quarter of the year. He said Russia also faced unspecified external threats to its $1.5 trillion economy and that the country of 143 million people could not afford to rest on its laurels after overcoming the worst of the financial crisis. "Based on GDP, Russia should enter the ranks of the five leading countries," he told lower house deputies, adding that GDP per capita should reach $35,000 by 2020. "The current beneficial environment in the raw materials and hydrocarbons (markets) should not make us relax. The oil boom we are witnessing only underlines the need to move quickly to a new model of economic development," Putin added. High oil prices helped fuel Russia's economic resurgence during Putin's 2000-2008 presidency, and the price of oil, Russia's main export commodity, is up 28 percent this year. Reuters |
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