The Russian economy shrank by 3 percent last year, for the first time since 2015, according to a second estimate released by the Russian Statistical Office on Thursday, correcting the 3.1 percent decline in the first estimate in February. Russia’s GDP grew by 2 percent in 2019, 2.8 percent in 2018, 1.8 percent in 2017, and 0.2 percent in 2016. In 2015, the economy shrank by 2%.
The last time the economic slowdown last year was in 2009, when GDP fell 7.8 percent that year. According to data released by the Census Bureau on Thursday, gross domestic product fell 1.8 percent year on year in the fourth quarter of last year. The third-quarter figure was revised from 3.4 percent to 3.5 percent, from 8 percent in the second quarter to 7.8 percent, while in the first quarter of 2020, GDP grew by 1.4 percent instead of 1.6 percent.
The Russian Central Bank expects economic growth of 3 to 4 percent this year, the Ministry of Economic Development expects economic growth of 3.3 percent, while experts say the average growth is 2.8 percent.
