John Litwack, chief economist for the bank's Russia Office, said gross domestic product could top 7% this year, with a government target set at 6.5%.
This GDP growth forecast makes more achievable President Vladimir Putin's ambitious goal to double the size of the national economy by 2012, which, according to the World Bank, has been growing at an average 6.2% in the past six years.
Further appreciation of the ruble is also likely, and the average wage may reach $500, up from last year's $395, Litwack said as he unveiled the World Bank's latest report on Russia at a press conference in Moscow.
According to the report, consumer inflation in Russia could be pushed to 9-10% by surging capital inflows.
"Money supply growth is reaching record levels, and less of the monetary expansion is being sterilized by accumulation in the Stabilization Fund than in the past," the report said. "Inflation has remained under control in early 2007, but could well become problematic in the second half of the year."
Russia's Stabilization Fund has been contributing to inflation control by keeping windfall oil and gas revenues out of the economy. But money being raised by major Russian companies through bank loans and IPOs is expected to send the capital influx to $45 billion in the first five months of 2007, against $42 billion for the whole of 2006.
