Russia’s economy contracted 2.7% year-on-year in the last quarter of 2022, and data from Rosstat showed the economy contracted 2.1% for the year as a whole.
The first quarter of this year was marked by the imposition of a European embargo on Russian petroleum products, in addition to another embargo on crude oil, and a cap on the price per barrel of sixty dollars, which weighed heavily on Moscow’s oil revenues, essential to its finances.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development had indicated on Tuesday that the Russian economy would contract less than expected this year, by 1.5% this year, according to updated forecasts.
The bank estimates that Russia has benefited from higher than expected oil revenues, thanks to the redirection of its exports to other countries to compensate for its decline in Eastern Europe, and that economic growth in Russia should therefore return to 1% next year.
For its part, the International Monetary Fund had suggested in a previous report that the Russian economy would be able in 2023, for the second consecutive year, to resist despite the war and the sanctions.
The fund said at the time that the Russian economy would grow this year by 0.7%, more than the 0.4% it forecast in its previous report.
Last year, the Fund predicted that Russia’s GDP in 2022 would contract by a sharp contraction of 6%, but it only contracted by 2.1%.
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