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MOSCOW, Jan 19 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund cut its forecast for Russia’s economic growth in 2026 by 0.2 percentage points to 0.8% on Monday.
The fund, which has not sent monitoring missions to assess the state of the country’s economy since November 2019, before the start of the COVID pandemic, did not provide a reason for the downgrade.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has asked the government and the central bank to bring the economy back on the path of "balanced growth" in 2026, which would be the fifth year of the war in Ukraine.
After showing resilience to Western sanctions during the first three years of the war in Ukraine, the Russian economy slowed to about 1% growth in 2025 from 4.3% in 2024 as a result of the central bank keeping the key interest rate high to fight inflation.
High costs of credit, an excessively strong rouble, labour shortages, tax hikes and falling state revenues from oil and gas are weighing down on the economy, making an economic rebound in 2026 unlikely.
The central bank forecasts economic growth of between 0.5% and 1.5% in 2026.