MOSCOW (MRC) -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) continued to lower its estimate for Russian economic growth in 2022 to 2.8% from expected 2.9% in October, 3.1% - in July and 3.8%, which it estimated growth in April last year, reported Interfax.
In 2023, as the IMF expects, the growth of the Russian economy will be 2.1% (previously - 2%).
The fund explains the slight decrease in the forecast for Russia this year by a weak harvest and the passage of the third wave worse than expected.
The assessment of this year's global economic growth was reduced somewhat more significantly - from 4.9% to 4.4%. Such a forecast is given in the World Economic Outlook Update, published by the IMF on Tuesday. The forecast for 2023 increased by 0.2 p.p. - up to 3.8%.
The report notes that the global economy enters 2022 in a weaker position than previously expected. As the Omicron variant of COVID-19 spread, countries reintroduced restrictions on movement. Rising energy prices and supply disruptions led to higher-than-expected inflation, especially, in the US and many emerging and developing economies. However, the fund notes that the forecast is based on a reduction in adverse health effects to low levels in most countries by the end of 2022, assuming vaccination rates improve worldwide and treatments become more effective.
The fund's forecast for the growth of the Russian economy in 2022 is slightly lower than the Ministry of Economic Development's estimate for this year - 3% and is in the range of the Bank of Russia - 2.0-3.0%.
As reported earlier Russia's GDP growth in 2022 will slow to 2.4% and in 2023 - to 1.8%, according to the World Bank (WB) report "World Economic Outlook", published in January.
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