WASHINGTON, APRIL 20, 2002, /RIA-NOVOSTI CORRESPONDENTS KIRILL GLEBOV AND NIKOLAI VLASOV/ -- The G-8 has applauded Russian economic successes during the Washington conference. This was disclosed to reporters by Russia's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin, who attended the afore-said conference on behalf of Russia. Kudrin made this statement, after the conference wound up.
Kudrin has arrived in the US capital in order to attend the spring-time session of IMF and World Bank managing bodies, due to open here April 20.
According to Kudrin, the G-8 has paid considerable attention to Russian economic development. Everyone was really interested in this issue, Kudrin stressed. In his words, this discussion involving representatives of all G-8 countries was the most interested event over the last few years.
Alan Greenspan in charge of the US Federal Reserve System, who ranks among the world's most respected financiers, summed up the discussion's results to some extent. Russia has developed unexpectedly over the last 18 months; still no one had expected Russia to chalk up such parameters, Greenspan noted. Greenspan also congratulated the Government of Russia on its successes, Kudrin said.
I get the impression that all participants applauded this result for the first time ever, Kudrin went on to say. All aspects of Russian economic development, including prospects for the banking sector's development, the subsequent development of the pension system and its pension-accumulation element, the development of natural monopolists and the liberalization of the electricity market, were examined during the discussion. Moreover, I was asked about Russian small businesses and new economic-growth trends, Kudrin added.
Conference delegates were quite interested in the relevant parameters of the 2002 federal budget and in our plans for the 2003 period, Kudrin noted. The Deputy Russian Prime Minister also said that conference participants had noted the need to eliminate the current oil-price dependence, discussing Russia-OPEC cooperation all the same, Kudrin stressed.
Conference delegates voiced some apprehensions concerning subsequent Russian economic development. In Kudrin's opinion, such apprehensions are linked with a study of economic-growth factors, as well as with subsiding economic and industrial growth.
Besides, conference participants said they were concerned over persisting high inflation. However, the German Minister of Finance noted that the Government of Russia was able to meet projected 14-percent inflation targets.