Today in Russian Business – May 8, 2012

Newly-anointed President Putin has ordered the government to undertake a number of economic measures in order to raise capital investment to no less than 25% of GDP in 2015, from its current level of 20%, to create 25 million high productivity jobs by 2020 and to establish a 30% increase in the share of high tech products in GDP in order to reduce the state’s dependency on natural resources.  He also instructed the government to adopt a number of social measures including a significant reduction of mortgage loan rates and an increase on real wages 1.4-1.5-fold by 2018.  Finance Minister Anton Siluanov says that Russia’s predicted annual growth rate of 3-4% is insufficient and that investors must be sought after if the country is to reach the more appropriate target of 5-6%.