Russia GDP to Grow 1%

Russia’s economy will return to modest growth in 2017 despite Western anti-Russian sanctions, with the GDP rising 1%, the Moody’s ratings agency said Wednesday, Sputnik reported. “Moody’s projects that Russia, the largest economy by far among the nine countries, will record positive, albeit modest, real GDP growth of 1% in 2017, after two years of recession. This upturn will lift the broader region due to trade and financial linkages. Only Belarus is expected to shrink again in 2017,” the agency said in a statement following the release of its outlook for the Commonwealth of Independent States. Geopolitical conflicts will nevertheless continue to exert pressure on the Russian economy and the economy of neighboring CIS states, the statement added, noting that armed conflict, such as the violence in Azerbaijan’s breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh and the war in east Ukraine, will continue to undermine the economies of most CIS states except Belarus and Kazakhstan.