IMF Deputy Director Says Will Not Judge Russia Sanctions, Admits Economy Outperformed

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is not in a position to judge the effectiveness of Western sanctions against Russia, but the country had outperformed previous IMF forecasts on its economy, First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath said on Monday.

"I think this is an area that we don't comment directly on, in terms of effectiveness of sanctions or kinds of sanctions to implement," Gopinath said in a live-streamed interview with the Washington-based think tank Foreign Policy.

However, Gopinath also said the Russian economy had surpassed IMF’s expectations of its performance.

"What is true is that Russia has been able to export large quantities of oil, even despite the price gap (with the selling price cap set under Western sanctions). So, they have earned a large amount in terms of export earnings."

Gopinath acknowledged the IMF had been criticized by some for its positive outlook on Russia's economy and "I think everybody has now come around to recognizing that these are the actual numbers".

"Russia's growth has come in stronger than we expected. We revised it up by a percentage and a half this year so you know we are squarely in positive growth territory. It has done better than we expected," she added.

The IMF has forecast Russia’s economic growth in 2024 to be anywhere between 1.1% and 2.6%.