(This content was produced in Russia where the law limits coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine.)
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s economy shrank 5% year on year in September, the economy ministry said on Thursday, a sharper contraction than the 4% recorded a month earlier.
Western sanctions and the fallout from Russia sending tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine in February have pushed the country into recession, but Moscow says the West has failed to destroy Russia’s economy.
Earlier this year, economists predicted a double-digit recession for 2022. The Economy Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that the country was on track to post a 2.9% contraction this year, and that September’s drop was due to a high base effect compared to the same month last year.
Central bank officials said Moscow’s call for 300,000 reservists to fight in Ukraine, in what the Kremlin calls a “partial mobilization” campaign, could further hit Russia’s economy by undermining the demand, pulling workers out of businesses and undermining consumer confidence.
The ministry said Russia’s economy was 4.4% lower in the third quarter of 2022 compared to the same three-month period in 2021.
(Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya; Writing by Jake Cordell; Editing by Jan Harvey and Mark Heinrich)
