German Gref: Dangerous to carry out a serious and wide-ranging reforms in Russia

Baku. 28 May. REPORT.AZ/ President of Sberbank, German Gref said that it's dangerous to carry out a serious and wide-ranging reforms in current system of Russia. First, the country needs to create an effective management system.

Report informs, the head of Sberbank, German Gref said in his interview with newspaper "Vedomosti".

"As there is less money, there is greater incentives to reform. And with the price of oil around 70 dollars there is no more stimuls for reforms. Before you begin to reform something, you must first create an effective management system. With the currently system it's dangerous to develop serious and large-scale reforms", G.Gref said.

Speaking about the current economic situation, Gref said that, he sees the sources of growth that would assist to come out of the negative trend. According to him, the years 2015-2016 will be difficult for the economy as a whole, as for the banking sector. However, the decline in GDP by 3-4% is not so significant. The main problem is Russia falls into a long-term negative trend. In April, retail sales fell to 9.8% in annual terms, investment up to 4.8%, the industry up to 4.5%, GDP up to 4%. The federal budget deficit reached 4.4% of GDP, the banking sector again came out negative.

Then G.Gref declined to describe the current situation with the word "impasse", and mentioned that the current system will slowly degrade. President of Sberbank believes that, to ensure future economic growth, Russia needs to invest in human resources, new technologies, the most important institutions, to improve the overall investment environment in the country.