World Bank official on Russian GDP growth

The annual investment conference organized by the Renaissance Capital will start today. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Kudrin, who is also the Russian Finance Minister, the first to make a report at the conference, is likely to be asked about the chances to attain the goal set by President Putin to double Russia's GDP by the year 2010.

Head of the World Bank's Russian office Julian Schweizer said in an interview with RBC that this goal required an annual GDP growth of about 10 percent which he claimed unlikely. Russian economic growth demands a substantial increase in investments, particularly long-term investments in the real sector of the economy, Schweizer pointed out. He also argued the volume of long-term investments would depend on Russian tax legislation. According to the World Bank's official, the tax legislation should be rational and stable in order to promote investments, the Kommersant newspaper reported.