How do you achieve fast growth, without http://chicandamazing.com/ macroeconomic stability? That is the central dilemma which has faced Russian policymakers since 2014.
When it came to making a choice between the two, stability won out nearly every time. Following the annexation of Crimea, provision of support for pro-Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine and interference in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, Russia pulled itself — and others pushed it — away from the international economy.Н
“Russia has created a model where it has a very closed economic system, but also a system that cannot generate growth. You can have stability or growth — and Russia has chosen stability,” said Saxo Bank’s chief economist Steen Jakobson.
As a new decade starts, however, Russia believes it has found a way to achieve both.
It plans to use the government war-chest built up through half a decade of ultra-conservative macroeconomic policy to kick-start a new growth chapter and boost living standards, all while keeping the economy safe from economic storms. Doing so will be no small feat.