Despite the fact that the official theme of the World Economic Forum in Davos was the fourth industrial revolution, the discussions were largely devoted to urgent problems of the world economy, such as the current economic downturn in China and the sharp decline in oil prices, Alexei Mukhin, Gleb Pokatovich, Sergei Pikin and Alexander Apokin said, summing up the results of the 2016 Davos Forum.
According to the director of the Center for Political Information, Alexei Mukhin, Davos 2016 tried to formulate the principle of 'it's easier to believe in China than not to believe'. "I must say that the world economy still believes that oil prices will grow. All this makes it unclear what will happen to the dollar, the euro and the yuan, which would make any further currency war very hard," the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza cited him as saying.
The head of the Global Research Unit at the Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-term Forecasting, Alexander Apokin, drew attention to the specifics of the discussion of the Chinese theme in Davos. "We must understand that China was discussed at the forum, first of all, in the mid-vein. Today we see a historic decline in economic growth in China. We should expect slow capital outflows from China. But we will get a bunch of problems only in the long-term," he stressed.
"In general, the policy of the forum was instrumental. The key theme of the forum – the fourth industrial revolution, the changes that may occur in the global economy – has been much more interesting than China," Alexander Apokin noted.
In a conversation with Vestnik Kavkaza, Apokin pointed to a significant distortion of the Chinese topics. "There was one section on Russia, one on the EEU and four on China," the expert said.
The Director of the Energy Development Fund, Sergey Pikin, added that the global agenda, in fact, hasn't changed in the last year. "Those concerns that existed at the beginning of last year haven't disappeared. There was no fall in oil production in the United States. A majority of the experts at the forum agreed that the average price of oil will be around $50 per barrel. Of course, this figure is not the task for February. Now the situation is about the same as a year ago, but uncertainty has increased," he said.
The Deputy Head of the Analytical Centre under the Government of the Russian Federation, Gleb Pokatovich, addressed the Russian theme on the forum. "Russia, in fact, uses Davos to promote its regional agenda. The Russian Federation quite consistently implements its own interests at the Forum. I should note that the benefits, which have been identified in the course of the forum, in the current situation may not be as attractive to investors, because the risk is quite high," he said.
