Russian economy up in October due to strategic spending: finance minister

• President Vladimir Putin has put 13 national projects, ranging from healthcare and education to infrastructure.
• Russia's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 1.7pc in the third quarter of 2019, in year-on-year terms.
• The Russian economy ministry has yet to provide its own estimate for October GDP growth.

President Vladimir Putin has put 13 national projects, ranging from healthcare and education to infrastructure, at the heart of his fourth six-year term that began in 2018. He has ordered the government to try to raise economic growth above the world average by 2025.

"We are launching national projects now.... this includes work with business, with (Russian) regions... We already see an impact from this, we see economic growth starting to pick up," Siluanov told a business forum.

Putin's plan envisages spending 26 trillion roubles ($406 billion) but officials are divided over whether the projects, which will be financed by the state and by private investors, can help boost growth, which is projected to be a modest 1pc this year.

Alexei Kudrin, head of the state Audit Chamber and a former finance minister, told the forum on Wednesday the national projects plan might not boost the economy.

Russia's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 1.7pc in the third quarter of 2019, in year-on-year terms, up from 0.9pc in the second quarter.

The Russian economy ministry has yet to provide its own estimate for October GDP growth.

Separately on Wednesday, central bank governor Elvira Nabiullina told Russian lawmakers she was concerned over slow economic growth this year and blamed it on a lack of structural reforms.

"Overcoming structural curbs is the most important task for our economy," she said. Under its mandate, the central bank targets inflation but not economic growth.

Nabiullina also said she saw room to ease monetary policy further after a period in which monetary policy was kept moderately tight to curb inflation.

Andrey Kostin, head of Russia's second biggest bank VTB , told Reuters in an interview this week he believed Putin's national projects plan could help Russia boost its growth in the same way that U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt's 'New Deal' helped end the 'Great Depression' in the 1930s.

But the key, Kostin said, is to maintain tight control over funds "so they are not stolen" and to give private business flexibility when it comes to making decisions related to co-investing with the state.