G-8 leaders to discuss ways to reach higher economic development rate

Economic development will be one of the centerpieces of discussion at the G-8 summit meeting in Evian on June 1-3.

"For several years now, world economy has been developing slower than it could have done," Andrei Illarionov, the Russian president's economic adviser, told RIA Novosti, adding that that was an issue with both developed and developing countries.

According to him, economic development problems are not just "short-term," which accounts for the fact that the summit of the world's leading countries is going to dwell on them.

G-8 leaders are about to discuss the ways to reach a higher economic development rate, said Illarionov, adding that the issues that worried developed countries the most included structural reforms, especially those in the sphere of labor and social relations, pension reforms, correlation between the dollar and the euro, and oil prices.

"One of the subjects they are going to discuss in Evian is financing of agricultural produce by well-developed countries, European countries in the first place," he noted. The problem is important for both developing countries and healthy development of world economy, he stressed.

According to his account, those of the developing countries that specialize in agricultural produce are unable to compete with European products, which are being financed by the European community. "There's a lot of comparisons of how many millions of people live on one dollar a day or less, but at least 30-odd million cows inhabiting the European community live on more than 2 dollars a day," Illarionov said.