Russia in Full ‘Crisis’ to Kudrin Forecasting Longer Recession
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Russia will endure a longer recession than forecast by the government, former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said, urging the central bank to refrain from further interest-rate cuts as economic risks persist.
Gross domestic product may continue shrinking into the first quarter of next year, putting the economy on track for zero growth in 2016 after a slump of about 4 percent in 2015, Kudrin said in Moscow on Wednesday. Kudrin, 54, took issue with the contention by government officials that Russia has put the worst of the economic crisis behind it and warned that companies are only now beginning to feel the pain of collapsing demand.