"Owing to that, Russian companies could maintain and increase their exports by $800 million or twice as much as in 2003," he said.
According to the minister, raw materials constituted 66% of Russian exports in 2004, fuel and energy exports were 51% of the total and metal export, 15%.
"So, these two raw material groups accounted for 66% of exports," Gref said.
The minister noted that the share of hi-tech and science intensive products was insignificant, due to non-competitiveness of Russian-made goods in these fields, and called for encouraging investment in them.
Gref also noted that growth rates in oil production would decrease to 5.7% in 2005 and 5.1% in 2006.
The head of the Economic Development Ministry thinks it absurd to liberalize prices for the output of natural monopolies. He stressed that concerning natural monopolies "liberalization is possible but it would amount to liberalizing prices of only one company."
Gref doubts that the inflation rate can be kept within 8.5%. "Last year we failed to keep the planned inflation rate. The rate of 8.5% planned for this year is doubtful too," the minister said.
