It has been reported today that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has set an ‘ambitious goal’ for Russia to become one of the world’s five largest economies in the next decade, planning to send the oil-based economy up into the realm of the world’s financial superpowers.  That certainly is ambitious, the IMF might say, given some of the less-than-glowing reviews the Russian balance books received after the fund’s two-week mission in Moscow.  (We can but dread to think what it has to say about Belarus.)  Here are some of the recommendations drawn up by the mission’s cautionary overseers from the FT:

The fund has counselled Russian officials on the need to reduce the non-oil budget deficit from its current level of 11 per cent of gross domestic product to 4.7 per cent and increase interest rates to head off rising inflation.

The collapse of Russia’s economy in 2008-2009, when GDP fell nearly 8 per cent, laid bare the shortcoming of an economy that remains heavily skewed towards consumption and has very low investment rates.