Sberbank improves outlook on Russia’s 2020 GDP fall to 4.2–4.5%

MOSCOW, Jun 9 (PRIME) -- Top bank Sberbank has improved its 2020 forecast for contraction of Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) to 4.2–4.5% from 6–7%, CEO German Gref told President Vladimir Putin at a meeting on Tuesday.

“In general, the situation looks better than expected. Our preliminary expectations for this year was GDP contraction … of 6–7%, but as of today, we expect a slightly better (scenario) than the central bank and the government forecasted. Our estimation is contraction of about 4.2–4.5%,” he said.

The Economic Development Ministry expects the GDP to shrink by 5% this year, while the central bank sees it falling by 4–6%.

Gref also said that the Russian economy would rebound after the coronavirus epidemic faster than the economies of the U.S. or the E.U.

“We expect the Russian economy to cope better in general than the European or the American ones,” he said.

Actions of the central bank during the pandemic was accurate and timely. Reduction of the refinancing rate and introduction of programs for support of banks helped everyone, Gref said.

Sberbank sees recovery of small businesses, and the situation in June outperforms expectations.

“We received reports on working terminals in small businesses for the past week, and we can see activity from that. Only 10% of the terminals did not operate,” he said, adding that only 25% of the terminals were active in April, while there are some regions now where 100% of terminals were relaunched.

He also said that this year Sberbank was acknowledged as the best bank in the world from the point of view of shareholder value over the past five years.

End %%md/jst%%