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The Budget Statement sets out priority areas for budget expenditure: namely, healthcare, education, research and development, and transport infrastructure. Mr Medvedev gave information on the Statement at a meeting on economic issues.

The Statement sets several objectives for the Government, the President said, among them ensuring a stable and balanced budget system, measures to bring down inflation, formation of a sustainable mechanism for pension provisions over the long term, and making budget spending more effective.

The Budget Statement reads, in particular, that defining the goals and objectives of fiscal policy should take into account the fact that in the last few months uncertainty in international markets of raw materials, foodstuffs and capital has risen, and that the global economy continues to slow down.

The Statement also reads that external factors have a major impact on the Russian economy. This is due to the fact that despite high rates of economic growth in the past ten years, the current structure of the Russian economy still does not meet contemporary requirements for a dynamically developing country. It differs significantly from the structure of the economies of more developed countries, where fields such as education, science and health care carry more weight.

Under such conditions Russia must improve the stability of its national economy by improving its structure, use of innovative techniques, by modernising public services, improving transport, energy and financial infrastructure, and creating a propitious environment for business.

The Statement stresses that in order to do so, budget policy must be conducted with all due diligence and factor in all possible scenarios for the world economy, including negative ones. At the same time the policy must be active and make maximum use of all available opportunities.

Taking part in the meeting were Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Sergei Naryshkin, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina and Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov.