Russia made major strides in the decade before the 2008 crisis, helped significantly by oil and gas revenues. But productivity and living standards are still well below those of the most advanced market-oriented countries, and the speed of convergence since the crisis was lower than in most BRIICS countries (). Moreover, growth has slowed since 2012, partly for cyclical factors but mainly because potential output growth has slowed. The Ministry of Economic Development slashed in November 2013 its projected long-term average growth to just 2.5% down from 4.3% projected in April, warning that Russian growth until 2030 would lag behind the global average. Making further sustainable advances and fulfilling the presidential decree of May 2012 to increase labour productivity by 50% by 2018 and create 25 million highly productive jobs by 2020 will require a new pace of reforms.