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Russia’s GDP shrank by 4 percent in this year’s second quarter, Rosstat, the country’s statistics agency, reported on 12 August.
Russia’s economic productivity contracted much less than predicted during the first full quarter after it invaded Ukraine and after an array of Western sanctions had been laid against it.
Economists had predicted a median 7-percent loss, almost twice the actual result.
Wholesale trade shrank 15.3 percent and retail spending 9.8 percent, the agency said, after McDonald’s, Amazon, and hundreds of other Western retailers fled after the war began.
TREND FORECAST: As we have noted and forecast, the sanctions imposed on Russia and the companies exiting the nation would hurt those nations who have imposed the sanctions and those companies which have lost revenue streams more than they would hurt Russia.
As the June data indicates, the economic contraction in Russian was not devastating and may be the worst of what is yet to come.
And, on a bigger note, as we have forecast, considering their human and natural resources, Russian companies will pick up what other manufacturers and retailers have dropped when they pulled out, making Russia more of a self-sufficient economy.
Indeed, this is what we had forecast in May: Russia, having far advanced over the past three decades from its old Soviet model, is in a key position to become a Self-Sufficient Economy, aligned with our Top 2022 Trend.
Rich in human and natural resources, Moscow will fight against the sanctions being imposed upon it. Indeed, prior to the Ukraine War Russia had bolstered itself over a long period of time in preparation for the assault by creating as much of a self-sufficient economy as possible.
And while there is doubt being expressed in the major media, politicians, and “experts” that Russia will be unable to fill its tech-void and the U.S. and NATO chip void, we forecast they will be able to sustain combat operations, high-tech advancements and solid economic growth since they have prepared for such sanctions and as we have been reporting, they are working to become self-sufficient.
Also, it will continue to use its wealth in grains, petroleum, and other strategic minerals to trade with a much-reduced number of nations, primarily China, to secure what it can.