Putin forecasts prosperity in coming decade
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Inflation mostly depended on the situation in the agricultural sector, so the state would finance the agricultural sector to make its production competitive with imported foods, he said.
"Domestic farmers make products of very high quality and I personally consume it frequently," Putin said.
Meanwhile, Putin also said Russia would be one of the world's five largest economies by 2020.
"Based on the GDP, Russia should enter the ranks of the five leading countries," Putin said, adding that the GDP per capita should reach 35,000 U.S. dollars by 2020.
Big job ahead to secure sustainable development
Still Putin did not attempt to present the deputies too rosy a picture. He admitted that labor productivity in Russia had lagged behind the majority of developed countries and not all Russian citizens benefited from the positive trends of the recent years.
In this respect, Putin promised that, in the next few years, the most economically vulnerable groups in society, such as military personnel, teachers, doctors, cultural workers, families with children and others, would receive considerable pay hikes and cheaper mortgages.
The prime minister confirmed minimum salaries paid to employees of state-run organizations woould be increased by 6.5 percent from July 1.
"Russia needs to create a mass middle-class, stabilize the country's population, secure access to quality health-care and education for all people and guarantee decent pensions," Putin said, adding that "the country needs a decade of stable, calm development."
Th prime minister also revealed a government plan to allocate hundreds of billions of rubles to boost socio-economic development in several remote regions, including the North Caucasus, the Far East and the Baikal territory.
