Russia has been much more successful in coping with the economic consequences of sanctions than Western countries expected. Eduard Steiner, a columnist for the German newspaper Die Welt, gave this assessment.
"The Russian economy is coping with Western sanctions much better than expected. Moscow restaurants are almost fully booked before the holidays, it doesn't look like an economic crisis," he said. When Western countries adopted the first new restrictions against Russia after it launched its special military operation (SMO) in Ukraine, international financial institutions predicted that Russia's gross domestic product (GDP) would drop "by as much as 10 percent" in 2022 alone. However, according to the latest forecasts of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Russia's GDP decline this year will be "only 3.4 percent," the journalist points out.
According to him, three key factors have given the Russian economy "unexpected stability". The first one is the galloping rise in energy prices in 2022, which brought super profits to Russia's energy exporters. The second factor is the "unexpectedly Russian layer of small and medium-sized enterprises," which are "more accustomed to looking for anti-crisis solutions and alternatives" than the government. The third factor is "a group of relatively young professionals in the government," 30 to 60 years old, who "have high competencies in the field of economics and finance and experience working at private companies, including foreign ones". Their competent actions have made it possible to minimize the negative effect of Western restrictions, according to the author of the article.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: arodsje/Pixabay
Based on materials from TASS