[No dateline, as received] The review of the parameters for the forecast of the country's economic development is a "usual practice in market economies", Aleksandr Khandruyev, the head of the consulting company BFI [banks, finances and investments] and the former first deputy chairman of the Russian Central Bank, said in an interview with Echo Moskvy radio.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on 6 May demanded that the government in the near future submit to him the plan of main trends in the country's development for the next four or five years.
Khandruyev said that it was important to review the forecast. "It is also not bad that we are linking the parameters of the forecast with the planning of the 2003 budget. The time has come for us to start medium-term budget planning stretching two-four years ahead."
But, in the expert's opinion, it is an "alarming and dangerous" signal that "the review of the parameters is being linked with stepping up the country's economic growth rates".
"Growth in the conditions of the unbalanced economy is fraught with financial bubbles which will sooner or later lead to financial crises similar to the 1998 crisis," he said. This will also lead of the domination of raw material industries and "the national economy's structure will get worse instead of getting better". In addition, artificial promotion of economic growth is always carried out at someone's expense and "most likely ordinary people will be that someone".
Russia's economy is not capable of suddenly increasing growth rates at the moment, Khandruyev said. "The government's aim is to create conditions for economic growth instead of trying to dictate which economic growth rates are the best for the country," he stressed.