The Russian economy is growing above the world average – Kommersant

The Russian economy has recovered faster than expected and is growing at a rate higher than the world average, said the head of the Ministry of Economy, Maxim Reshetnikov. At the same time, he warned that the shortage of personnel in the country will persist for several more years.

According to the minister, economic growth was driven, among other things, by the accumulated margin of safety, economic stability and targeted government support. “The Russian economy has recovered, it has recovered faster than expected. This is not a question of the quality of the forecasts; it has proven to be very adaptive, flexible and resilient. And now it is growing at a rate higher than the world average,” said Mr. Reshetnikov at the Russia Forum (quote from TASS).

He believes that the problem of personnel shortages, their training and competition in the labor market “will haunt us in the coming years.” The head of the Ministry of Economy clarified that the focus for the next few years is the development of investments, new capacities, as well as issues of attracting equity and borrowed capital.

“In an environment of fairly high interest rates, this is not easy to do. Businesses face limitations in investment resources. We will get through this, and circulating lending will increase. The period of high rates is not forever, and as soon as normalization occurs, we will take longer-term money, business is working with this,” he is sure.

According to the forecast of the Ministry of Economy, in 2024 Russian GDP will grow by 2.3%. The Central Bank expects its growth by 1–2%. In January, the International Monetary Fund adjusted the forecast for the Russian Federation for this year is from 1.1% to 2.6%, which is significantly higher than the estimates of both Russian and international analysts. Probably, the fund considers it possible to maintain the significant impact of the budget stimulus on the Russian economy.

For other GDP forecasts, see the Kommersant article. “Academics lower GDP growth expectations”.

Laura Keffer