NEWSWATCH: “How realistic are Putin’s promises to massively increase social spending?” – bne Intellinews/Vadim Dumesh, Ben Aris

“The militarism of … Putin’s … state of the nation speech on March 1 has overshadowed the economic part … set[ting] out the Kremlin’s development strategy … remain[ing] merely declarative and if anything show[ing] the lack of consensus between the Kremlin, government and policy advisers … [with]the Kremlin … attempting to fudge policy to keep all the various factions – liberals, oligarchs, security services and state-owned enterprises (SOE) – happy. * * * The big macroeconomic targets set out by Putin are unrealistic and some … demonstrably unachievable. These include increasing GDP per capita 1.5-fold by 2025, made possible by an increase in spending efficiency, private investment, securing a robust tax system, and structural changes in the economy. … Russia’s economy would have to grow by 7% a year for six years … whereas the official forecast for this year is 1.8% of growth and even the most optimistic forecast by US investment bank Goldman Sachs is for only 3.3% of growth in 2018.”

Click here for: “How realistic are Putin’s promises to massively increase social spending?” – bne Intellinews/Vadim Dumesh in Paris, Ben Aris in Berlin