Siluanov: the government was able to neutralize most of the sanctions

The measures taken by the government and the Central Bank made it possible to neutralize most of the sanctions imposed against Russia, said Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, speaking at the Knowledge. First.”

“Our government and the Central Bank always have an action plan in case of difficult situations, and this plan has worked. We made the necessary decisions that allowed us to neutralize most of the imposed sanctions. The economy sank, but not by 20%, but by 2.1%,” – leads his words TASS.

Annual inflation at the same time dropped to the level of 3%, the minister added.

According to Siluanov, the European Union has already exhausted its possibilities to impose new sanctions against Russia, and it is necessary not to count the packages of sanctions, but “to mind our own business and move forward.”

Earlier in March, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, during a speech in the State Duma with a report on the work of the government in 2022, said that the decline in the Russian economy in 2022 was moderate, now the economy returned on a growth trajectory. Mishustin stressed that Russia “withstood” in the face of economic pressure, although it “was not easy.” The Prime Minister noted that “our economic system has shown such flexibility not for the first time.” He recalled how, during the pandemic, the Russian economy “passed through the crisis more confidently than many Western countries.”

During his message to the Federal Assembly, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia was predicted to collapse the economy, but the decline in GDP in 2022 was 2.1%. In mid-March, the head of state noted that he expected a “significant increase” in the Russian economy in the second quarter.

Last week, the Central Bank announced that the experts it interviewed improved forecast for Russian GDP in 2023. Analysts expect the Russian economy to contract by 0.1% this year after 1.1% in March and 1.5% in February. The inflation forecast for 2023 is slightly lowered to 5.9% after 6% in March. Experts expect inflation to return to the target of 4% in 2024. Expectations for the average key rate in 2023 remained the same – 7.5% per annum.

On April 14, Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov announced that the department improved forecast for the Russian economy in 2023 from a decline of 0.8% (in the September forecast) to growth of 1.2%. The main contribution to economic growth, according to Reshetnikov, will be made by the recovery of consumer demand after the recession in 2022. The expected growth in household incomes will contribute to this, the minister noted. Demand will recover both as the population’s propensity to save normalizes and as consumer lending grows, he added.