The Russian economy will show minimal growth at the end of the year. The European Commission issued a forecast on Russia’s GDP growth this year. Europeans expect that Russia will not be able to demonstrate a GDP growth over 1%.
Last May, the European Commission predicted 1.5% GDP growth for Russia as of the end of the year. However, eventually it decided to downgrade its forecast. Russia’s economic slowdown came as a result of VAT increase and a general delay in global economic development. In 2020, the situation is expected to improve thanks to a government investment expansion program. Meanwhile, the European Commission still reduced its Russian GDP growth forecast for the next year from 1.8% to only 1.4%.
The European Commission also offered predictions regarding Russia’s unemployment rate that will be rather high at in 2019 and decrease to 4.9% in 2020. The commission is pessimistic about the US economy as well. This year US GDP will only grow by 2.3% against the expected 2.4%. In 2020, the United States will only build up its GDP by 1.8%, TASS reports.