Economic growth neglected during fight with inflation, Russian GDP will only grow 0.8% in 2025 - Sberbank's Gref

MOSCOW. Oct 23 (Interfax) - Russian GDP will grow roughly 0.8% in 2025, Sberbank CEO Herman Gref said.

"We've been so engrossed in the fight with inflation lately that we've forgotten about economic growth to some extent. If we don't have economic growth we won't have anything. We won't be able to tackle social problems or anything else. So the country faces the colossal task of keeping growth rates no lower than the global average," Gref said at a meeting of the Presidential Council for the State Demographic and Family Policy.

"Russia's economic growth over the next two years will be 1%-1.5%, unfortunately, in 2025-2026. This year, growth will likely be around 0.8%, and God grant us the same figures next year," he said.

Gref said the goal was to return the economy to its planned growth rate after it has cooled.

"All economic growth depends on two factors: labor productivity and the number of employees," he said.

He said there was an ambitious goal for increasing labor productivity. "It's generally doable if we begin actively using artificial intelligence, robotics and all other new technologies, but this needs a lot of investment and a major commitment to education, science and so on. And this will be difficult to achieve given the capital shortage and high interest rates we have today," Gref said.

Demographic trends will hinder economic growth in the coming years, he said.

"By 2024, our unemployment rate dropped to 2.5% [on average] and this year it's down to 2.1%. And it's likely to remain at this level," Gref said.