Russia Lowers Economic Growth Forecast, Cuts Crude Oil Estimates

Russian Economy Ministry said at its website on Monday, Feb. 19, that Russia will cut its forecast for economic growth this year after lowering its estimate for crude prices. GDP will probably expand 6.05 percent this year, down from 6.2 percent previously forecast, the ministry said.

Russian leaders have warned that growth, which has been bolstered by oil and gas and helped the country pay back billions of dollars in debt, may slow as energy prices fall. President Vladimir Putin has urged the country’s largest companies to do more to lessen Russia’s reliance on raw materials exports, as crude oil prices dropped below $60 a barrel this year.
“The slowing economic growth is an objective reality and we will soon feel its effects,” Anton Struchenevsky, a senior economist at Moscow-based Troika Dialog investment bank, told Bloomberg. “The era of cheap money is over.”

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