Speaking following a cabinet session, Vladimir Putin said: "Economic growth hit 6.9% on 6.4% last year. We are keeping to schedule in our long-term plans."
Putin said the stock exchange index grew 65%. "This is one of the highest indices in the world," he said, adding that basic welfare indicators were also favorable.
Household incomes grew 11.5%, and pensions were raised by 5.3% in real terms, he said.
He added that investment in fixed assets, both domestic and foreign, increased considerably, and that direct investment rose by 55.5%.
"The government has played a central role in ensuring the sustainable development of the economy and the welfare sector," the president said, adding he hoped brisk growth would last into next year.
Other achievements this year highlighted by the president include the completion of bilateral talks on accession to the global trade body, the World Trade Organization (WTO), with main partners, the United States among them.
Russia has yet to sign bilateral WTO protocols with Salvador, Guatemala and Costa Rica. The economics ministry expects to complete multilateral talks by mid-2007.
Putin also cited the creation of the United Aircraft Building Corporation (UABC) as another example of progress. The UABC was set up to consolidate the country's main aircraft construction assets and to raise the national aircraft industry's competitiveness, especially ahead of Russia's accession to the WTO.
A new state-run Development Bank, which will begin work in the second half of 2007, is a project designed as the main financial tool of state support for struggling small businesses, high-tech projects and non-mineral exports, and will thereby diversify an economy too reliant on energy exports, Putin said.
Russia's Stabilization Fund, set up to accumulate windfall oil revenues, which have been a driving force behind the brisk economic performance, hit $83.2 billion as of December 1 and foreign currency and gold reserves reached $299 billion.
"All this allows us to look to next year with confidence and make new plans to promote economic growth, raise the country's potential and the well-being of our citizens," Putin said.
