IT Kingdom in Russia that few people know
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According to a recent study by the Oxford Internet Institute of Oxford University, 750,000 Russian companies sold software to the UK alone in 2018. According to a recent report by the Center for Economic and Business Research, one of the UK's leading economics consultancies, Russia's economic performance has been evaluated as better than the Western one by many indicators. Having reviewed the report, a Japanese expert wrote that the “IT Kingdom" had been formed in Russia.
On December 26, another report by the Center for Economic and Business Research (CEBR) was released. Every year, on December 26, CEBR publishes the so-called World Economic League Table as the go-to measure of the comparative economic development of all countries.
Yusuke Otsubo, a Japanese expert, reviewed the released 240-page report with economic forecasts for 193 countries until 2035. Most of all, the report surprised him with positive outlooks regarding Russia, which is rather uncommon for the Western and even more so for the British expert community.
Yusuke Otsubo has been researching the Russian economy for many years, and it was interesting for him to see how one of the world's leading analysis centers rates the future of the Russian economy. Its evaluation has turned out to be very positive. According to CEBR, Russia is 11th among the world economies in 2021forecasts. And from 2030, our country is projected to take the sound 10th place in the world economic ranking table. It is interesting to note that such leading countries as Italy, Canada, and South Korea are expected to lose their positions and top lines in the ranking. However, Brazil will rise to 9th place in the table, and Indonesia will reach the 8th.
The author makes no secret of being surprised: “The WELT table comes with the CEBR analysis for each country. Looking through the page about Russia, you unexpectedly find judgments that are at least neutral, if not positive. And this is despite the fact that the Center is a British think tank.
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The Center estimates GDP per capita at US$ 9,972 (at purchasing power parity), which corresponds to medium and high-income countries. This indicator in Russia is only slightly less than the same indicator in Malaysia and China.
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GDP growth in 2020 is projected at minus 5% (Please note: Russian government’s projection is minus 3.8%).
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The budget deficit is rather small - 13.7% of GDP only. This is a great indicator. In normal times (before the coronavirus pandemic), Russia had a budget surplus, thanks to the export of resources and power.
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Russia is the second country in the world by oil production. Fossil energy resources account for 61.6% of exports, so the forecast that implies persistent low prices for crude oil impacts the Russian economy in a negative way.”
Nevertheless, there are some other figures indicated in the report that surprised the Japanese expert even more. He emphasized that the Western world had long been accustomed to perceiving Russia as a "gas station” country that was just lucky to have rich natural resources. But the CEBR report gives the following data: according to a recent study by the Oxford Internet Institute of Oxford University, in 2018 750,000 Russian companies and small startups sold software to the UK alone. However, it seems that these figures have not been reflected in the Russian GDP indicators yet.
And although according to the author, recently Russia has been more and more actively involved in outsourcing software development, he is not shy of being surprised: “And yet, 750,000 IT companies and startups in Russia is something incredible."