V. Putin: The Russian economy is doing better than expected

"Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, has stated that the results of the Russian economy are better than expected. Mikhail Mishustin, the prime minister, informed him that gross domestic product (GDP) growth was surprisingly positive and inflation was lower than forecast.

This year, GDP growth may exceed 2%, and annual consumer price inflation may not exceed 5%, M. Mishustins said during a meeting in the Kremlin. The International Monetary Fund predicts that Russia's economy will grow by 0.7% this year, Reuters reported.

"Our results, at least for now, let's say cautiously, are better than previously expected, better than predicted," Putin said, according to a transcript on the Kremlin's website.

At the end of June, analysts polled by Reuters predicted that in 2023 Russia's GDP growth will reach 1.2%, and inflation will reach 5.7%.

Russian economy in 2022 temporarily shrank just by 2.1% as Kyiv's allies imposed sweeping sanctions on Moscow over events in Ukraine.

Russian technocrats have helped offset some of the blow by restructuring the economy and boosting it with cash, and the finance ministry earlier reported that public spending was 26.5% higher in the first five months of this year than a year earlier.

On Tuesday, V. Mishustins told V. Putin that if there are no force majeure circumstances, the economy will work well this year.

"Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin), the country's economy continues to confidently recover, despite the sanctions, despite all the obstacles that are placed on our country," Mishustin said.

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has repeatedly said that Russia's budget deficit will not exceed 2% of GDP this year, although most analysts disagree.

The International Monetary Fund is among those who expect Russia's budget deficit to increase sharply this year.

Earlier, VŽ wrote that the Asian market also helps the Russian economy stay afloat. in 2021 Asian economies accounted for 39% of world nominal GDP. Exports accounted for 36% of global exports, and the five largest Asian economies together—China and Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and India—accounted for a quarter of all global imports. Asian economies currently account for three-quarters of global annual GDP growth, with China and India accounting for half. Therefore, Russia directed most of its trade to the economies of Asian countries."

There was high flying poetry about extraordinary, "sweeping", sanctions on Russia. Now let us see the political backlash to the Western leaders who introduced these sanctions. Economic chaos in the West caused by these sanctions is sweeping indeed.