Russia's Economy Proving to Be 'More Resilient to Sanctions' Than Expected, IMF Says

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russia's economy has turned out to be more robust than expected with sanctions affecting it not as heavily as many thought they would, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in its Regional Economic Outlook for April.
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"Russia’s economy has so far proven to be more resilient to sanctions than many observers initially expected," the IMF said in the document, adding that despite a sharp drop in the second quarter of 2022, the Russian economy managed to recover in the third and fourth quarters, "limiting the 2022 drop in output to 2.1 percent."
Russia's ability to diversify its crude exports by building up trade ties with non-sanctioning countries contributed to resilient oil export volumes, thus bringing in high revenues for the country's economy, according to the IMF's data.
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The surge in government spending, including defense-related expenditure, in the second half of 2022 boosted Russia's GDP by about 4% of its potential level, the IMF added, also saying that "with sanctions severely curtailing imports from Western economies, the current account surplus [of the Russian state budget] rose to a record $227 billion."
The West stepped up sanctions pressure on Russia after the start of Moscow's operation in Ukraine. Since February 2022, the EU has imposed ten packages of sanctions against the country. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the policy of containing and weakening Russia is the West's long-term strategy, and the restrictions have affected the entire global economy.