The leader in GDP growth rates in 2004 was Ukraine with 12%, followed by Belarus (11%), Tajikistan (10.6%), Azerbaijan (10.2%) and Armenia (10.1%). Lower increases were registered in Kazakhstan (9.4%), Georgia (8.4%) and Moldova (7.3%). Russia's GDP growth rates, after they were reconsidered, came in at 7.1% - the same as Kyrgyzstan. The Statistics Committee has no information on GDP in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, which means Russia and Kyrgyzstan are last on the list.
Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Sharonov requested that a comparison not be drawn between Russia and economic development outsiders. He also noted that the mission to double GDP did not yet mean that life had become better.
Vasily Solodkov, the director of the Banking Institute at the Higher School of Economics, recalled that the CIS countries, with the exception of Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, were not oil and gas export addicts. "This means that they had to conduct reforms somehow to overcome a crisis," he explained. The second reason is that "the level of monopolization is enormous [in Russia]" - three or four monopolies account for 80% of the country's GDP. The raw material monopolies do not need to develop, which admittedly puts the brakes on Russia's potential growth.
Experts admit that the country's growth potential is no less than in the former USSR republics, but it is considerably diminished by Russia's current economic policy.
Analysts warn that it is highly probable that the neighbors will increasingly outstrip Russia in terms of development rates.
