MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The council, which is a consultative body for drafting national socioeconomic policy, is set to convene on May 25, and is expected to focus on Russia's stagnating growth and growing budget deficit.
"There is no need to push the country toward economic growth in the next few years, there are no resources available for that. The best result would be stable 1 percent growth in GDP," a preliminary meeting participant told the Vedemosti newspaper, quoting the position of former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin.
Kudrin, a free-market champion and supporter of tight fiscal policies, was recently appointed as chairman of the board of Russia's Center for Strategic Research, and will also advise the president on Wednesday. The economist backs keeping the budget deficit to 1 percent GDP and limiting inflation to 4 percent, according to the publication.
Lower interest rates would help "break out of the vicious circle. Companies are not investing as they wait for higher demand and demand is not growing due to stagnating incomes," an Economic Council member told the newspaper.
Russia has been hit by a downturn that began in early 2015 after falling oil prices and Western anti-Russia sanctions took bite. The country's GDP fell 3.7 percent in 2015, Rosstat said, after announcing a 3.8-percent fall in the fourth quarter.
