MOSCOW, January 15. /TASS/. The policy of aggressive pressure conducted by a number of countries, including illegal sanctions and the arrest of managers of large foreign companies, increases uncertainty in the global economy, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said speaking at a plenary session of the Gaidar Forum.
"On the one hand, this [current] level of uncertainty in the global economy and in national economies has objective reasons which are: this is, first of all, the speed of technology development, actually, this is the price we pay for technological progress. But on the other hand, - and this is the saddest thing about it - it is being created deliberately," the Prime Minister said.
"I mean the policy of aggressive economic and political pressure that has recently been incorporated by certain countries: from illegal sanctions and trade negotiations from the position of strength up to the arrest of foreign top managers, that never happened before, and the actual ban on acquisition of products of certain companies," Medvedev said.
According to the Russian prime minister, high level of uncertainty, digital transformation, and growing protectionism are the main risks for the world economy.
"The past decade has brought many challenges, in part they were quite predictable, in many ways they became unexpected, and both developed and developing economies are facing them now," Medvedev said. "They include high level of uncertainty that affects almost all aspects of life, the speed and scope of digital transformation, which carries both tremendous opportunities and associated risks, including the need to constantly upgrade the infrastructure, which is very expensive," he added.
Speaking ot the dollar, Medvedev said he is confident that the global trend of abandoning the currency in the world will only grow.
"Obviously, the trend to reduce dependence of national economies on the dollar will only increase. Economic actions such as sanctions and protectionism of the most powerful player in the economic arena only increase tensions," he said.
He added that he United States itself constantly feeds the de-dollarization idea with its actions. "We are still dealing with the so-called exorbitant privilege of the dollar, about which Giscard d’Estaing once spoke," the Prime Minister said. "A country whose monetary unit is a key reserve currency, it also destroys its own credibility. This is probably the paradox of the current situation. And the paradox is that the idea of de-dollarization receives constant incentives from the issuer itself," Medvedev emphasized.
The Gaidar Forum is an annual international scientific economy-related conference. The forum, which was held for the first time in 2010, is organized by the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), the Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy and the Association of Innovative Regions of Russia (AIRR).
Russia’s TASS news agency is the forum’s general information partner.