Russia raises its growth forecasts for 2021 to 5.6%

Russia’s federal statistics agency revised its 2021 economic growth estimate upward on Friday to 5.6% from 4.7%, saying the country recovered from the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic stronger than expected. believed at first.

the statistical office Rosstat He stated that the new figures were based on a more comprehensive set of information on corporate performance, balance of payments data, and government accounts.

These are likely to be the best annual results in a long season, as the fallout from the Russian military campaign in Ukraine and the imposition of sweeping Western sanctions have pushed the russian economy to the recession.

Independent analysts expect the country’s economy to struggle for years due to the loss of crucial energy exports to Europe and access to Western technology and finance.

President Vladimir Putin declared that this year’s economic decline will be less than 2.5%, while official forecasts from the Ministry of Economy point to a contraction of 2.9 percent.

Rosstat said the economy contracted 3.7% on-year during the third quarter of 2022, unchanged from a previous estimate.

At the beginning of the year, the government expected annual growth of 3% in 2022.