Resources for growth of Russian economy exhausted

Resources for the "restorative" growth of the Russian economy have been exhausted, one of the leaders of the SPS movement, Yegor Gaidar stated in his report "The Modern Economic Growth and the Strategic Outlooks for the Social and Economic Development of Russia". "I am surprised that the government has pursued conservative economic policies amid high oil prices," he noted. In Gaidar's opinion, the potential for continuing structural reforms under conditions of the upcoming war on Iraq and the following inevitable tumble in oil prices will shrink considerably.

The expert pointed out that Russia was 40 to 60 years behind developed countries. There are several reasons for this. First, it is a large share of women employed in manufacturing, which leads to a drop in the birth rate. In its turn, a decline in the birth rate brings about a decrease in the share of the working population. Another factor is a drop in the life expectancy. Additionally, the growth of the GDP is hampered by an increase in alcohol consumption per capita. An advance of the relation between pensioners and working citizens hinders the GDP growth, too.

Taking all this into account, Gaidar proposed lines for stabilizing the economic growth. One of them is transferring to a professional army. As for increasing the efficiency of healthcare, SPS suggests an opportunity for an employer and an employee to switch from the state medical insurance system to private companies. In education, Gaidar proposes to abandon the rate of 170 free students per 10,000 citizens, which is the basis of the current educational system. Additionally, he suggests focusing on increasing the federal educational standard for all Russian schools.