Officially, the Russian economy shrank by 2.1% in 2022

The Russian Federal Statistics Service said, on Monday, that the Russian economy contracted by 2.1 percent last year, compared to recording a growth of 5.6 percent on an annual basis in 2021.

The authority indicated that the downturn was affected by the repercussions of the Ukraine war.

The first estimate of Russia’s GDP published by the Federal Statistical Service (Rosstat) for 2022 was significantly better than the forecast announced in the aftermath of the start of the conflict.

The Ministry of Economy predicted at one point that the economy would contract by more than 12 percent last year, exceeding the production crises recorded in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union and during the financial crisis in 1998. (Reuters)