Russia should orient itself on the global pace of economic development, said Vladimir Mau, rector of the Russian Academy of the National Economy and Public Service.
"It is very important that we have realized that absolute rates of growth cannot be defined as targets. The Russian economy is open, and it cannot expand regardless of the global pace. The economy was able to grow this way in the 2000s as part of a recovery after it shrank by 40%, and later it recovered. Recently the economy declined by around 3%, and it is clear that there is no potential for a recovery, for growth regardless of global trends," he said in an interview to TASS at the investment forum in Sochi.
According to him, in this regard the benchmark is the global average rate of growth. "In addition, the rate is fairly reasonable," Mau emphasized.
"Sometimes I call it another way, slower than in China, but faster than in Germany. Consequently, this rate of growth is an objective of the federal government, an objective of regional administrations. It is important to note that by no means nominal growth rates should not be used as a target in the short term. It is very easy to accelerate growth over the next two years using macroeconomic manipulation, and later create conditions for a recession for many years ahead. The perfect example is fast economic growth in 1986-1988 in the Soviet Union when the economy expanded at a fast pace, and faced a recession over the next ten years as this pickup was driven by sharp deterioration in macroeconomic indicators, a sharp rise in debt and substantial growth of the budget deficit," he pointed out.
In this regard, economic growth should be not set as a target, Mau thinks. "It should remain in focus, but this is not a short-term criterion," the rector said.
