Doubling of GDP possible in less than 10 yeas

The doubling of Russia's GDP might occur even earlier than in 10 years, Russian Presidential Economic Advisor Andrey Illarionov declared at an international economic forum in Moscow today. According to him, over the past 50 years, 70 out of 150 countries that have monitored their economic processes have doubled their GDPs in a 10-year period of time. So, there are no grounds to believe that this process will not happen in Russia, he added. At the same time, Illarionov stressed that there were a number of problems, in particular the "sensitivity" of Russia's economy to oil prices and some symptoms of the "Dutch disease" in the Russian economy. The Presidential Adviser referred to the positive experience of Kazakhstan with its GDP advance twice as high as in Russia and a 32-percent decrease in the process of the real strengthening of Kazakhstan's national currency, while in Russia the real ruble rate has strengthened by 50 percent. "This has influenced negatively our economic development," Illarionov admitted.