MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s economy shrank 3.7% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2022, revised data from the federal statistics service Rosstat showed on Wednesday, an improvement on the previously reported 4.0%.
The impact of Western sanctions imposed over Russia’s actions in Ukraine and the draining effect on the workforce from President Vladimir Putin’s late September mobilisation order have sent Russia’s economy into contraction this year.
Officials and analysts have been gradually improving GDP forecasts for the full year, but suggested that the overall drop in output may be more prolonged, though less sharp, than first expected.
The economy faces additional headwinds from an oil price cap imposed by Western nations this month and a European Union embargo on its seaborne oil exports.
After growing 3.5% in the first quarter, the Russian economy has now slipped into recession, with 4.1% and 3.7% contractions in the subsequent two quarters.
Russia’s economy ministry forecasts GDP to fall 2.9% in 2022 as a whole.
(Reporting by Alexander Marrow and Darya Korsunskaya; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
