President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Medvedev, we are closely following economic developments and know that the national currency has become somewhat stronger.
The ruble is growing stronger despite certain price volatility on commodity markets. In this context, of course, we must think about what we should do and how we should do it in connection with this factor.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev: Mr President, we have a plan for this year and we are carrying it out. It provides for support of the real economy, small and medium-sized businesses, which is very important for this class of entrepreneurs, and non-resource exports, which is also vital in the current situation.
Incidentally, these non-resource exports are affecting our revenues to a much bigger extent. In other words, the share of revenue from these exports has considerably grown in the past few years. This is linked both with the dynamics of oil prices and the increased supply of manufactured goods that we are exporting abroad.
Vladimir Putin: The Government is starting active work on the budget. We are returning to three-year planning. I hope all the factors will be taken into account in the near and mid-term perspective.
Dmitry Medvedev: Absolutely. We have already started working on the budgets for 2017, 2018 and 2019, and indeed, are returning to three-year forecasting, which gives us a wider planning horizon. And, certainly, we will conduct a series of meetings to consider all the factors that exist in the economy today.
I will conduct such meetings in Moscow today and tomorrow and in the next two weeks.
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