Russia's crucial year
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For Russia, one of its top priorities in 2011 is to keep economic growth. Meanwhile, political infighting might gather steam ahead of the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections.
How will President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin perform in this crucial year? Analysts said that economy and elections will be their focuses.
Keep economy growing
Russians hope that their economy will achieve sustained and healthy growth this year, but the uncertainty of the outside economic environment and the lack of endogenous impetus are clouding the country's economic development.
In 2009, Russia's economy was smashed by the international financial crisis and saw its worst recession in decades with gross domestic product (GDP) shrinking 7.9 percent.
In 2010, although Russia's GDP achieved a 3.8-percent growth, experts still believed that Russia faced an uphill task to maintain a steady economic growth.
In order to achieve steady growth, the Russian government has to effectively handle two tough tasks, namely curbing inflation and cutting deficit.
However, the federal statistic service Rosstat announced Wednesday that preliminary data indicated that Russia's inflation rate was 8.7 percent in 2010, due to the unprecedented summer drought that affected a third of Russian crops.
In his annual address to the Federal Assembly, Medvedev vowed to lower the inflation rate to 4 percent and 5 percent in the next three years.
With regard to deficit, Russian authorities have reiterated efforts to balance the budget and cut the deficit to zero by 2015. However, Russia's budget deficit in 2010 amounted to 4.2 percent of the GDP, portending a difficult task.
Moreover, relying heavily on resources sectors, such as oil and natural gas, is the long-time evil of Russian economy. Therefore, the government is to carry out an innovation-oriented economic development strategy and seek new launch pads for economic growth.
According to the government, Russia is to reform and modernize major industries, especially innovating in energy conservation, aerospace, nuclear power, medicine, communications and other sectors.
The government has also been improving its investment environment, wooing foreign investment and introducing cutting-edge technologies.
In addition, Russia's "economic diplomacy" is expected to bring more chances to the country in the coming years.
Local media predicted that Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) will further boost the country's economic development and improve its relations with the United States, the European Union and other countries.
