Socio-Economic Development of Russia: Through the Waves of a Pandemic and a Systemic Crisis

Abstract

In the article, the authors express their opinion on the outcomes of social and economic development of Russia in 2020 and give a forecast of expected results for 2021 and 2022. The state and possible directions for overcoming stagnation are considered, primarily by closing the technology gap in production and ensuring the growth of labor productivity, business, investment and consumer activity, increasing the efficiency of capital investments as key factors in the recovery of the real sector and the knowledge economy, including industrial production, agriculture, capital construction.The drawbacks of the current management system are noted, and measures to overcome the structural crisis are proposed. The need for changing the state socio-economic policy is substantiated. Its main goal should be to ensure the health of the nation.The authors compare trends in the Russian and world economies by main development indicators, such as gross domestic product, industrial production, investments, foreign trade.The article examines the shortcomings of the current state financial policy, which should become an instrument of financial support for sustainable socio-economic development and countering external and internal risks and threats. The problems of execution of the federal budget for 2020 are analyzed. Using case examples, the authors prove the necessity for priority use of financial resources of the «rainy-day fund» to accelerate the development of sectors of the national economy.Given the slowdown in global economic growth in 2020 and problems associated with its full recovery in 2021, the expected expansion of trade wars and sanctions lead to a conclusion that there is a growing negative trend in the Russian economy as well with the potential of stagnation escalating into recession.