Russian GDP growth

Several months after sanctions entered into force, in 2015 the Russian economy slipped into a recession that lasted nearly two years, the longest economic downturn since the 1990s. Since then, Russia’s economy has performed better – the 2017 to 2019 period saw a return to economic growth and positive indicators in several areas: a strong federal budget surplus, low levels of debt, low unemployment and falling inflation. In 2020, while the human cost of the pandemic was very high, in economic terms, Russia weathered the storm better than many other countries. After a rebound of 4.3 % in 2021, growth of 2.8 % is forecast for 2022, dropping to 1.8 % in 2023 (Figure 5).