Russian Economy Unexpectedly Slows as Recession Specter Returns

Russia’s economy unexpectedly slowed in the second quarter to extend a slide that’s stoking concern the world’s biggest energy exporter may be entering a recession.

Gross domestic product expanded 1.2 percent from a year earlier, the Federal Statistics Service in Moscow said today in an e-mailed report. That was below all 19 forecasts in a Bloomberg survey, which had a median estimate of 2 percent. The Economy Ministry had projected that output expanded 1.9 percent in the period.