Posted on 04/25/2024 3:29:11 AM PDT by Mount Athos
Russia’s economy is expected to grow faster than all advanced economies this year, according to the International Monetary Fund.
Russia is expected to grow 3.2% in 2024, the IMF said in its latest World Economic Outlook published Tuesday, exceeding the forecast growth rates for the U.S. (2.7%), the U.K. (0.5%), Germany (0.2%) and France (0.7%).
The prediction will be galling for Western nations which have sought to economically isolate and punish Russia for its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Russia says Western sanctions on its critical industries have made it more self-sufficient and that private consumption and domestic investment remain resilient. Meanwhile, continuing oil and commodity exports to the likes of India and China, as well as alleged sanctions evasion and high oil prices, have allowed it to maintain robust oil export revenues.
Russia’s military-industrial complex has also expanded significantly during the war as defense spending and production have rocketed. In short, Russia has adapted to a “new normal” as its economy has been put on a war footing.
The IMF predicted that Russia’s economic growth would moderate in 2025, however, declining to 1.8% “as the effects of high investment and robust private consumption, supported by wage growth in a tight labor market, fade.”
The Washington-based IMF includes the U.S., U.K., the euro area’s largest economies, Canada and Japan as advanced economies. Russia, China and India remain in its “emerging and developing” Europe and Asia categories, respectively.
The head of the IMF told CNBC in February that the Russian economy was still facing significant headwinds despite the Fund’s rosy forecasts for the country of roughly 145 million people.
“What it [the growth data] tells us is that this is a war economy in which the state — which let’s remember, had a very sizeable buffer, built over many years of fiscal discipline — is investing in this war economy,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told CNBC’s Dan Murphy at the World Governments Summit in Dubai in February.
“If you look at Russia, today, production goes up, [for the] military, [and] consumption goes down. And that is pretty much what the Soviet Union used to look like. High level of production, low level of consumption.”
Georgieva said she believed the Russian economy also faced challenges related to an exodus of skilled workers and “because of the reduced access to technology that comes with ... sanctions.”
Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina told lawmakers in Russia’s State Duma on April 8 that production in the country is being constrained by worker shortages, according to Reuters, although she noted that Russia’s economy was continuing to grow at an impressive rate.
Last week, Nabiullina also sounded a note of optimism over Russia’s inflation rate (at 7.7% in March), saying she believed the peak had passed, although it was too early to start cutting rates.
Russia’s central bank is expected to hold its key rate at 16% at its next rate-setting meeting on April 26, a Reuters poll showed last month. Analysts polled by Reuters expect rates to stand at 12.5% by the end of 2024, Reuters reported last week, far above the central bank’s inflation target of 4%.
Having begun his fifth term in office, Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to raise living standards in Russia, with increased spending on education, health care and public infrastructure. He also signaled that taxes on larger companies and wealthier individuals will rise.
Let’s see,
Russian arms sales are way down cause the world sees they suck when going up against American military stuff.
Russia has oil
And wheat to sell.causethei other stuff sucks.
Drivel
Russians are. But serfs
The IMF, OCED and World Bank all have similar GDP contraction numbers for 2022 and 2023. The meager growth estimate for the coming year that you are celebrating is from the IMF. If you want to cite an IMF number fine. But, be consistent and look at it in the context of the last few years.
...which continue to sink deeper and deeper into the quicksand of the Decadence of Western Civilization and grow increasingly contemptuous of Truth.
“the IMF said in its latest World Economic Outlook”
EVERYONE knows that the IMF is a Russian mouthpiece, just looking at where it’s based tells you that right away.
But the sanctions……….
Record Wheat Harvest too!
ahhh just like the old Soviet Union! all is fine and dandy!
Enriched flour.
Thanks to the Marxist Dems, Russia’s oil sales to Europe will take care of their economy for many years to com..
—” Russia’s economy is growing ...”
Pls, tell us about your successful Russian investments.
And how do you convert your profit from rubles to USD?
How did you make the trades?
What was the ding?
You are a Russian citizen.
So, you think Russia should be able to march in and take over any country it wishes?
No sanctions were ever going to work without China. Russia sells China oil and gas and China sells Russia ever consumer good in existence. That’s why years after the sanctions Russian store shelves are packed to the rafters with cheap goods.
And your screen name remains the most accurate description of a personality in FReeperville!
GDP calculations are based on spending, with Russia’s total GDP now inflated by spending on military consumables in its war against Ukraine. Such spending is not the same as increased civilian productivity and spending, which raise the standard of living. That is why Putin is now talking about trying to increase the Russian standard of living.
This is a given. Russia has retooled for war. The US Defense sector is the only actual functioning area in the US economy. Our NG exports are keeping the EU afloat at 4x the prewar price. Russia has all the natural resources and Brics framework with access to 65% of the world’s population. The Russian war effort is growing. They producted nearly a 900 new tanks and refurbished over 2,000 last year. Their drone production is dwarfing Ukraine’s, which Ukraine herself states that drones cut the need for troops by 90%. Using drones for assault this summer will reduct the need for tanks, troop carriers and infantrymen which may have an impact on the economy by 2026 as things slow down,
Blackrock’s balance sheet in Ukraine was nearly 400B and it is upside down; they were the first Bitcoin ETF by design. The USG approved the Bitcoin ETFs 6 months sooner than expected due to the balance sheet losses in Ukraine by major US firms.
Bitcoin will grow faster than the US Debt and the Russian Economy;)
Putin is doing a decent job. Brics exports and imports are at a fraction of the US costs. Russia is watching the US strangle Europe over energy and our move towards integration with the EU has destroyed the EU over this war - all to line the pockets of the DC Crowd. Biden on the other hand has increased food prices nearly double since the start of the war in fastfood and 40% for groceries all the while US workers make 7% more. We have so much butter because no one is buying it.
All Russia has to do is maintain their current standard of living. The West is canabalizing itself over energy, destroying our own food production, and de-industrialization. Germany has been in recession for 3 years. The US has been on life support since 2007/2008 and nothing our government publishes is true anymore - QExx has added more money our economy than economic activity by about 9x since Obama.
Russian agricultural miracle: A story of a country that feeds itself
Russia has nothing to offer the world except fossil fuels, minerals, and educated and skilled Russians eager to emigrate. Within a decade, advances in fusion, geothermal, and other forms of energy production will deprive Russia of its major export earner. In time, Russia will become a rump state dependent on the West for survival.
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