Russia has enough resources to boost economic development

"Russia has enough resources to boost its economic development," Andrei Illarionov, the presidential advisor for economic affairs, was quoted as saying on Thursday when speaking at the final plenary session of the Baikal Economic Forum.

Illarionov said that investments were a factor that could positively impact on the pace of economic growth. However, he said, at present the most important issue is not the quantity, but the quality of investments (both foreign and domestic), in short, fewer but better. The presidential advisor said that the Soviet Union used to spend excessively much investing into the country's economy more than 50 percent of its GDP. Today, Russia's expenditures for this purpose constitute about 16-20 percent of GDP. Illarionov believes that there is no point in increasing the amount of investments at any cost.

In his opinion, countries famous for their "economic miracles" (China, Thailand, Korea, etc.) used to spend some 17-20 percent of their GDP. At the same time, European countries which are in the state of stagnation spend about 40-50 percent of their GDP. In the United States this figure is at the level of 35 percent. The conclusion is that countries that spend much rarely show good economic results. Russia should learn this lesson well, the presidential advisor stressed.