Structural changes in the economy: searching for sectoral drivers of growth

In the conditions of a system-wide economic crisis and destabilization of the external environment, the economy of the Russian Federation and its regions is experiencing structural limitations, which are associated with its imbalance. As a result, domestic demand for manufactured products is reducing; such a situation does not encourage enterprises to increase their output. This makes it necessary to search for the ways to eliminate structural disproportions and provide economic growth in modern economic conditions. One of such ways is to promote sectoral drivers of growth, that is, those industries and sectors of the national economy, the increase in demand for products in which has a significant positive impact on the economy. In this regard, the goal of this article is to identify and scientifically substantiate the need to stimulate the production of goods and services in economic sectors so as to promote structural changes in the economy at the national and regional levels. In this study, we consider mechanical engineering, information and communication technologies and tourism as drivers, which have a large multiplier effect and contribute to economic growth. The article assesses the consequences of stimulating the selected sectors of the economy in the context of structural changes both at the nationwide level and in the territorial context; this provision forms the scientific novelty of the study. The findings of the study reveal problems in development of mechanical engineering, information and communication technologies and tourism, confirm the importance of their development for the economy; the importance is expressed in a significant increase in the main economic indicators due to the increase in the production of goods and services. We use general scientific methods such as analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization, and the tools based on the input-output methodology. In the future, we plan to continue our work aimed at determining the correspondence of the parameters of development of these sectors contained in the strategic documents and the results obtained in the study for a deeper understanding of the problems of structural adjustment of the economy.