Spectre of stagnation: Russia's economy
① Economic policymakers and business bigwigs meet today to wrap up the Gaidar Forum, an annual symposium.
② They had reasons to exhale in 2017: after two years of recession, Russia's economy returned to growth, and inflation was under the central bank's 4% target, down from over 16% in 2015.
③ However, without deep reforms, GDP growth is unlikely to rise above the current level (under 2%, most reckon).
④ That worries the Kremlin ahead of Vladimir Putin's next presidential term. (He is certain to win elections in March.)
⑤ The conference has been filled with talk of how to modernise the economy.
⑥ Most experts agree that more must be spent on human capital, to the possible detriment of defence—a bitter pill for the security services to swallow.
⑦ Liberals pitch their plans in terms Mr Putin is more likely to understand: a stagnant economy cannot support his geopolitical ambitions, and technological backwardness threatens not only incomes, but national security.
▍生詞好句
spectre /?sp?kt?/: n. 幽靈
stagnation /staɡ?ne??(?)n/: n. 滯漲
bigwig /?b?ɡw?ɡ/: n. 大人物撑瞧；有重要影響的人
wrap up: 總結(jié)膀曾；使……順利進(jìn)行/圓滿完成
symposium /s?m?p??z??m/: n. 會議全谤；專題討論會
academic symposium 學(xué)術(shù)會議
exhale /?ks?he?l, ?ks?he?l/: vi. 長吁一口氣购裙；呼氣
inhale /?n?he?l/: vi. 吸入填物；吸氣
reckon /?r?k(?)n/: vi. 認(rèn)為亏拉；估計(jì)
detriment /?d?tr?m(?)nt/: n. 損害痴鳄；縮減
bitter pill: 苦藥
a bitter pill to swallow: 難以下咽的苦果柏卤；不能不接受的情況
pitch /p?t?/: vt. 提案省容；說服（vi. 競價(jià)）
