Even with the Western sanctions imposed on it, Russian economy is predicted to have slow economic growth in 2023, as per IMF ‘s estimation. It appears that by 2024, Russia might outshine the Eurozone economically, exhibiting a higher rate of development than them.
Russian Economy May See Small Growth Despite Recession
Since Moscow invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Europe has been enduring the repercussions while Russia‘s economy is steadily diminishing but still standing firm. Despite Western sanctions implemented for nearly a year now, the Russian economy has not succumbed to collapse. The IMF’s report on January 31st revealed that Russia had indeed gone into recession in 2021; however, the reduction of GDP was not as drastic as initially predicted – they expected a decrease of 8.5%, yet it ended up being just 2.2%. Furthermore, financial analysts predict an upturn in 2023 at a 0.3% economic growth rate (slightly under the Eurozone average, which is estimated to reach 0.7%) – thus suggesting no further downturn for the Russian economy going forward.
Heavy Sanctions Were Imposed on Russia for Its Occupation of Ukraine
Despite the weight of Western sanctions, Russia is still standing relatively strong. The European Union initiated nine rounds of measures against Moscow since its invasion of Crimea back in 2014 and February 2022, respectively; these included hitting their main exports and cutting off access to Swift’s global payment system, alongside targeting President Vladimir Putin himself. And now? Brussels is already working on imposing a tenth series of restrictions.
The European Commission is pushing forward with plans to impose a tenth round of sanctions, yet the difficulty in achieving consensus among all member states continues to grow. Ukraine has requested that Russia‘s missile and nuclear industries be held accountable under these measures. At the same time, Belarus may also face restrictions as Putin utilizes it for their war efforts against Ukraine. It remains unclear whether an agreement will be reached between all EU member countries at this point.
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