Russia will join the group of the world’s five largest economies in the next three years, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.
“In our estimates, already in the coming two to three years Russia will join the group of the world’s top five economies,” Putin said in his final report as prime minister to the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament.
Putin said Russia would be able to join this group in terms of GDP measured by the purchasing power parity.
IMF data suggests that Russia held the eighth place in the world in 2010 in terms of GDP calculated by the purchasing power parity, and may rise to the sixth place in 2011.
Putin also said that Russia must leap 100 steps forward to climb from the 120th to the 20th place in the rating of countries measured by their business environment.
“We are three to four times behind the most advanced economies of the world by the quality of our economy. This problem can be naturally resolved by creating jobs. We need to create no less than 25 million jobs in coming years,” Putin said.
Putin, who is to return to the Kremlin in May after four years as prime minister, also said that Russia needed to raise the level of investment in the economy to 25-30 percent of GDP.