Publication: Russian Economic Report, No. 35, April 2016: The Long Journey to Recovery
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2016-04-08
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2016-04-08
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Russia’s anticipated economic recovery was delayed. In 2015 the Russian economy began its difficult adjustment to the severe global oil-price shock and the imposition of economic sanctions in 2014. The impact of these twin shocks drove Russia’s economy into a deep recession, which reached its nadir in the second quarter of 2015. Following a brief rally early in the year, a further decline in global oil prices in August 2015 derailed an anticipated recovery, and annual real GDP contracted by a total of 3.7 percent. This report series is produced twice a year by World Bank economists in the Macroeconomics and Fiscal Management Global Practice.
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“World Bank Group. 2016. Russian Economic Report, No. 35, April 2016: The Long Journey to Recovery. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24028 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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In the region, the initial global financial turbulence was marked by sudden reversals of capital flows in the middle-income economies, rapidly declining equity market prices, a sharp increase in the price of external private capital, a shortage of dollar liquidity, and in some cases, a depreciating currency. Now with aggregate global demand falling precipitously, region-wide declines in exports and industrial production are triggering widespread factory closures, rising unemployment, and lower real wages, with disproportionate effects on the poor and near-poor. Authorities in many countries are implementing social programs and cash transfers to assist those most in need. Where possible, policymakers have responded quickly with expansionary monetary and fiscal policies, including fiscal stimulus packages, although in most cases these measures will only mitigate, not overcome, the contraction forces operating on their economies.
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