The oil price increase has not boosted Russia’s GDP as household income is stagnating, according to Presidential Envoy for Entrepreneurs’ Rights Boris Titov who spoke at the 6th International Forum of the Financial University.
“Russia’s economic policy does not correlate with the policies of other developing countries or the countries that demonstrated an economic growth in the past. Russians’ personal income is not growing, it is stagnating,” Boris Titov noted.
He added that the Russian government delivered on all of its promises to stabilize the economy. However, it has been difficult to achieve an actual growth.
“Compared to the economic indicators in 2008 and the current figures, you can see how slowly we are growing. For an efficient economic development, Russia needs 5% to 6% GDP growth.”
According to Titov, investors are reluctant to invest in Russia because the country still poses big risks such as criminal persecution of business people, regulatory issues and extremely expensive loans. The business ombudsman believes Russia needs to change its economic policy.
“This policy was very successful when oil prices were high. However, today we need to shift to a policy of investing,” the expert concluded.