WASHINGTON, April 11. /TASS/. The World Bank (WB) has revised its outlook for Russian GDP growth in 2024-2025 upward, according to a new World Bank report on the economic development prospects of Europe and Central Asia.
As specified in this document, according to the bank's experts, the Russian economy will grow by 2.2% in 2024 and by 1.1% in 2025. These figures represent an increase of 0.9 percentage points and 0.2 percentage points, respectively, compared to the January WB findings.
The World Bank also improved the forecast for Russian GDP growth over the past year by 1 percentage point - to 3.6%. WB experts believe that in Russia, increasing government spending contributed to an increase in social benefits, wages and investment, especially in defense-related industries, which increased activity in manufacturing and construction. Russian oil exports remained stable, while energy supplies shifted from the European Union to China and India, according to the report.
As WB experts noted, the growth of consumption in Russia has accelerated significantly due to high rates of wage growth and increased government spending. At the same time, the unemployment rate dropped to 3%, which is two times lower than in 2020. The World Bank estimates that "Russia's budget deficit was 2.3% of GDP in 2023 as strong growth in non-oil revenues helped offset a sharp drop in energy-related revenues and a sharp increase in defense spending.