MOSCOW, August 27. /TASS/.  The Russian economy may experience a 5-6% decline, President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 TV channel on Thursday.

The Russian leader noted that the entire global economy is facing negative consequences from the pandemic. 

“If we look back at 2008-2009, that crisis, then the drop in world GDP was 0.1%. This time, according to experts from the IMF, the World Bank and other organizations, it will be somewhere around 5%. The difference is enormous. Many [experts] compare it with the Great Depression of the 1930s, or even with the post-war [years]," Putin said. He recalled that foreign experts predicted that the Russian economy would see an 8.5% drop in GDP.

 "But our experts believe that it will be less – around 5-6%," Putin said. 

According to him, in the first half of the year, the economic decline in the United States came to 9.5%, and in the eurozone it was 15%.

“Some experts say, and I know this very well, that this is the result of a structural difference in our economies. Yes, apparently, this is so, in a way. But for the most part, this is still the outcome of the decisions made by the government that are targeted and, which is very important in my opinion, timely,” Putin noted