The Russian economy grew by 3.6% last year, a Sputnik analysis of data from national statistical services has revealed.
According to the research, 2023 saw Russia become the fifth fastest-growing economy in the Group of 20 in terms of growth.
The analysis also showed that economic growth slowed down in other countries, especially those that also are part of G7. Particularly, the UK economy de-accelerated by 43 times. In Italy, the economic growth slowed down by four times, while in France and Canada – by three times, the research showed.
The analysis comes after Russian Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshetnikov told reporters that his ministry expects the national economy to grow at a rate above 2% this year.
The statement followed President Vladimir Putin praising Russia as "the largest economy in Europe when it comes to gross domestic product (GDP) and purchasing power parity."
"The pace and, most importantly, the quality of growth allow us to hope and even assert that in the near future, we [Russia] will be able to join the group of the world’s four largest economic powers," Putin underlined in his address to the parliament in late February.
Also last month, the Russian Federal State Statistics Service Rosstat reported that the country’s share of global GDP amounted to 3.2%. Rosstat added that in terms of GDP, Russia is the world’s fifth largest economy after China, the US, India and Japan.
In January, the International Monetary Fund published an update to its October 2023 World Economic Outlook report, revising its forecast for Russia's economic growth in 2024 upward by 1.5 percentage points to 2.6%. The revision reflected a carryover from stronger-than-expected growth in 2023.
Last year, Putin announced that the Russian economy had recovered from Western sanctions.
"In general, we can say that the restoration of the national economy has been completed. We withstood absolutely unprecedented external pressure, the sanctions onslaught of some ruling elites in the so-called Western bloc, some ruling elites in certain countries, which we call unfriendly," the Russian president said.
He added that Russia’s oil and gas revenues in July-August 2023 had recovered to the level of last year, while non-oil and gas revenues had significantly exceeded figures related to 2022.
Since the beginning of Moscow’s special military operation, Western countries have imposed 11 packages of sanctions, which affected various sectors of the Russian economy.