Russia’s economy is getting worse faster
Russia’s economy is getting worse faster, according to new data from the Ministry of Economic Development on the first quarter of 2015.
Officials report that Russian GDP, excluding seasonal and calendar factors, contracted 1 percent in March, after shrinking 0.3 percent in February. Compared to levels in March 2014, Russian GDP has shrunk 3.4 percent.
Using revised data from the Federal Customs Service about oil exports outside the former USSR, Russian officials also adjusted estimates of economic decline in February 2015 relative to GDP in February 2014, moving that figure from -2.3 percent to -1.2 percent.
The Russian government collected 5.3 percent less in tax revenue on products and imports in March 2015 than it did the same month in the previous year.
The Ministry of Economic Development says Russia’s GDP contracted overall by 2.2 percent in the first quarter of 2015. The main reason for this decline, officials say, was a downturn in construction, manufacturing, and retail trade.
On April 21, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev present a government report to the Duma claiming that Russian GDP fell by just 2 percent in the first three months of 2015.
“The negative impact on GDP dynamics in March was the decline in trade volumes, the downturn in construction, and the fall of gas exports amid the conservative valuation of oil products,” the Ministry of Economic Development stated in a report.
- Russia’s adjusted federal budget for 2015, adopted by the Duma on April 10, is based on estimates that GDP will fall 3 percent annually.
- According to an updated forecast by the International Monetary Fund in mid-April, Russia’s economy is expected to contract by 3.8 percent in 2015.
- In early April, Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development adjusted its estimates of GDP in 2015, saying the economy would shrink 2.8 percent, rather than 3 percent.