In 2017 Russia’s economic growth, based on Rosstat’s first estimate, equaled 1.5% or a quarter less the government’s recent forecasts. It is only slightly better than the pre-2013 crisis trends.
However, if we disregard growth declines of the last three financial crises in the country, these growth rates turn out to be minimal in the last 20 years. At the same time, the global economy is demonstrating growth rates almost 2.5 times higher:
Russia’s exact place in the global economy depends on the way the growth of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is calculated. Converted into U.S. dollars at the current exchange rate, based on the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) estimate, Russia is outside of the first top ten countries:
Looking at the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) in national currency (by doing price comparison of the same goods and services in different countries), the group of leading countries, according to the IMF, looks different. In 2014, it was led by China ahead of the United States. Russia took the sixth place.
We have put both numbers together in one graph that demonstrates how Russia’s contribution to global GDP has been changing since the beginning of the new century. This is exactly what the ex-Minister of Finance was talking about:
