Putin allowed the growth of the Russian economy in 2023 above 2% – Kommersant

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the state of the economies of the Russian Federation and Belarus gives reason to believe that good growth awaits them this year. The President expects that the Russian economy will grow by more than 2% in 2023, and the Belarusian economy by 3.7%.

“Looked at the latest data. The economy is expected to grow by 3.7% annually in Belarus. These are forecast values, but nonetheless. We have a little lower, I can say. But for us it is also a good indicator. We expect more than 2% growth. Unemployment is at a decently low level,” Vladimir Putin said during a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko at the Konstantinovsky Palace, located in Strelna near St. BelTA).

According to the Russian President, all plans for the construction of the Union State are being implemented in full. He said that trade between the Russian Federation and Belarus is growing. According to the calculations of the Russian side, it is $43.7 billion, according to the Belarusian statistical assessment – almost $45 billion, Vladimir Putin said.

According to the results of the second quarter of 2023, the Bank of Russia stated that the GDP of the Russian Federation is growing faster than expected. In the regulator’s forecast, this is reflected as a change in the forecast for GDP dynamics from 0.5–2% for 2023 to 1.5–2.5%. According to the Bank of Russia, the recovery phase of the development of the Russian economy as a whole has been completed, according to a press release from the Central Bank on the state of the Russian economy following the results of the first half of the year. At the same time, on July 21, the regulator raised the key rate by 1 percentage point to 8.5%. The Central Bank explained this decision by the fact that domestic demand in the Russian economy is already somewhat higher than adequate for the current circumstances.

The target forecast of the government of Belarus for the year provides for GDP growth of 3.8% and a foreign trade surplus of $1.6 billion. Alexander Lukashenko declaredthat will send the Cabinet to resign in case of failure to meet the forecast indicators.

Erdni Kagaltynov