MOSCOW, August 28. /TASS/. The Economic Development Ministry expects population in Russia to grow by almost 2 mln people in the next five years. This is according to the ministry’s basic macroeconomic forecast for 2019-2024, the copy of which was obtained by TASS.

The ministry notes that this outlook takes into account "the development of measures to support the birth rate."

According to the document, the population will increase annually by 0.2-0.5 mln people and will grow from 146.8 mln people this year to 148.7 mln people in 2024.

According to the forecast, the number of working-age population will also increase - from 82.0 mln people to 85.3 mln people. At the same time, the number of retired people will decrease from 37.3 mln people to 35.6 mln people.

Earlier on Wednesday, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said at a meeting on federal budget spending for 2020 and the planning period 2021 and 2022, in terms of demography, health, education, science, youth policy and social security, the federal budget will be focused on supporting fertility, helping low-income families and resolving health problems.