World Bank maintains Russia’s 2021 GDP growth forecast at 4.3%

MOSCOW, Dec 1 (PRIME) -- The World Bank (WB) has maintained its forecast for the increase of Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2021 at 4.3%, the organization said in a December report on Wednesday.

The Russian economy worked at its full capacity, but the COVID-19 restrictions will likely slow down the economic growth in the future as vaccination dynamics remains low in the baseline scenario, while high interest rates that are necessary to combat inflation will restrict consumer demand. Taking that into account, GDP of Russia should rise by 2.4% in 2022 and by 1.8% in 2023.

The authority also expects the average annual oil price to reach U.S. $74 in 2022 and to fall to $65 in 2023.

Prices for natural gas and coal in Europe should remain high until the end of 2021, but they will fall by 14% in 2022 and by 27% and 25%, respectively, in 2023, the WB said.

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