MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russia's real gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate is projected to slow down by 3.5 percent in 2015 and regain some 0.2 percent in 2016, the European Commission's (EC) spring 2015 Economic Forecast has shown.
The economic situation in Russia is expected to stabilize in 2016 "based on the technical assumption of sanctions expiring in July 2015 and also given the slight rebound in oil prices," according to EC estimates released on Tuesday.
The Eurocommission also revised Russia's 2014 GDP growth by one-tenth of a percentage point to 0.5 percent.
In April, Russian Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said the economic slump could worsen in the second quarter of 2015 and show signs of improvement only in the final months of the year.
Falling oil prices and Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over its alleged role in the Ukrainian crisis were listed in the Forecast as reasons behind the weakening of Russia's economy in 2015.
The United States, the European Union and their allies handed down sanctions targeting Russia's banking, energy and defense sectors throughout 2014 following Crimea's reunification with Russia last March and Ukraine's internal conflict that erupted the following month.
In response to the restrictive measures, Moscow introduced a year-long ban on certain food imports from the countries that had imposed sanctions last August.
