MOSCOW, March 11 The Russian economy, despite forecasts of a financial collapse made in 2022, continues to defy would-be forecasters, writes the Economist magazine .
«Over the past 2 years… the Russian economy has repeatedly defied would-be soothsayers. The financial collapse, widely predicted in the spring of 2022, has not come,» the magazine's publication says.
The magazine also notes the impact of the measure introduced in the Russian Federation on the mandatory sale of foreign currency earnings for exporters. In addition, the publication believes, Russia is still moving towards a “soft landing”, in which inflation slows down without destroying the economy.
First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Andrei Belousov announced at the end of January that the Russian government would propose to extend the mandatory sale of foreign currency earnings by the largest exporters until the end of 2024. The government positively assessed the effectiveness of this measure, which is now in force until April 30 of this year. The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, for its part, said that it considers its extension justified. The Central Bank has a slightly different position — the head of the regulator, Elvira Nabiullina, stated that she sees no compelling reason to extend this measure.
Inflation in Russia, according to Rosstat, in 2023 amounted to 7.42%. At the end of the year, inflation turned out to be slightly better than the Ministry of Economic Development's expectations of 7.5% and fit into the Central Bank's forecast corridor of 7-7.5%.
In addition, according to the statistics agency, Russia's GDP in 2023, according to the first estimate, grew by 3.6%. The value practically coincided with the estimates of the Ministry of Economic Development.