MOSCOW, January 26. /TASS/. The optimistic outlook for Russia’s GDP growth of 3% is realistic if certain reforms are implemented, Economic Development Minister Maksim Oreshkin said in an interview aired by the Rossiya-24 TV news channel on Thursday.

"Our targeted scenario released last April was based at growth rates around 3%. This outlook implied a whole number of changes, new programs, which we are currently developing, with some being launched. Whether we reach those figures will depend on those programs. This is surely an optimistic forecast, since the base case scenario implies only 2% growth," he said.

Earlier this week the minister said that Russia’s annual economic growth might reach 3-3.5% within the next two years.

In the middle of January, he said that he considers the forecast provided by Goldman Sachs that Russia's GDP would grow by 3.3% in 2018 to be too optimistic. However, he expects this year’s GDP growth to surpass the level of 2017.

The Ministry of Economic Development preliminarily estimates Russia’s GDP growth at the level of 1.4-1.8% in 2017, below the outlook.

Earlier the International Monetary Fund (IMF) improved the estimate of Russia’s GDP growth for 2018 and kept the outlook for 2019 unchanged. According to the updated report, GDP growth in Russia will reach 1.7% in 2018 versus earlier predicted 1.6%. In 2019, the IMF expects Russia’s GDP to grow by 1.5%.