Moscow's Economic Reforms Bring Results, Although Less Effective Than Expected

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia managed to redirect investment from the oil sector to other industries and cited a 17-percent decline of oil and gas receipts as a share of the country's budget revenue over the last two years.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The economic reforms pursued by the Russian government are effective, even though greater results were expected, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

"Why do you think that Russia is less advanced in regard to these reforms?…We need to carry out a whole set of measures, so we are gradually doing that. Regrettably, may be, the effect is not as powerful as we would like it to be — now I finish in a second, patience — but still there is a result," Putin told the television channel Bloomberg, when asked whether the reforms in Russia were a failure compared to the successes seen in China and Vietnam.

Putin said that the country had managed to redirect investment from the oil sector to other industries and cited a 17-percent decline of oil and gas receipts as a share of the country's budget revenue over the last two years.

"So, structural changes also occur. And it is not just the price but also economic growth, the growth of specific production sectors," Putin added.

Industrial production has been growing across the country, the Russian president said, stressing that in Russia's Far East the growth of industrial production was 5.4 percent.