MOSCOW, September 8 (RIA Novosti) - Russian midterm macroeconomic performance forecasts suggest the government's target of doubling GDP by the end of this decade will hardly be possible to meet, the Audit Chamber said in a report Friday.
The forecasts, used as a basis for Russia's 2007 draft budget, make equally unrealistic the plan to reduce inflation to 3%, the agency said, adding that even the top limit for 2007, set at 8%, would be difficult to sustain.
President Vladimir Putin set the ambitious goal of doubling Russia's GDP by decade's end and bringing inflation down to 3% in his annual state-of-the-union address in 2003.
Last month, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov said the government has been making progress in its efforts to boost growth. "In the past few years, we have been growing 7% per year, on average, and our forecast for the three years ahead is around 6%," he said.
An Economics Ministry forecast for the country's social and economic development through 2009 projects inflation at 9% in 2006, 6.5%-8% in 2007, 4.5-6% in 2008 and 4-5.5% in 2009.
