Premier says GDP growth in Russia this year will exceed governmental forecast - 20 September, 2002

On the results of 2002, the GDP growth in Russia will be somewhat bigger than the government forecast - 3.9 percent instead of 3.6 percent. Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said this in Astana at a session of the inter-state council of the Eurasian Economic Community.

According to him, these figures are confirmed by the fact that over the past eight months the GDP growth amounted to 4-4.1 percent.

Kasyanov pointed out that the macroeconomic situation in Russia was "stable, and this has lead to the general growth of incomes in the country which exceeded 20 percent over the past three years." He also stressed that the real pensions this year increased by 30 percent.

To lower the level of inflation to 14 percent is the most important task the government is facing, and "there is every reason to believe that it will be such." In particular, over the eight months of this year, inflation amounted to 9.9 percent as compared to 13 percent year on year.

Kasyanov stressed that successes in agriculture are a positive factor in the development of the Russian economy. "Over the past two years, we have been harvesting a record-high 85 million tons of grain, which is 5-8 million tons more than the country needs," the Russian premier underscored. He called on the countries which are members of the Eurasian Economic Community (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Tajikistan) to actively invest in the Russian agriculture.