World Bank Forecasts Russia’s GDP Growth for 2017 at 1.5%

The World Bank has retained its projections of a 1.5-percent growth in Russia’s gross domestic product for 2017.

PORTLAND (Sputnik) — The World Bank has retained its projections of a 1.5-percent growth in Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) for 2017 and foresees an increase in growth of the country’s GDP for 2018 at 1.7 percent and 1.8 percent for 2019, according to the economic organization’s recent report.

The World Bank said economic growth in Russia will resume in 2017, but at 1995-2008 levels mainly as a result of low oil prices.

Fluctuations of global prices of energy commodities remain the main risk factor for Russia’s economy, as well as for other energy commodities exporters in the Central Asian region, including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, according to the report.

The World Bank has also lowered its projections for growth in the global economy for 2017-2018 by 0.1 percentage points from its assessments in June of last year to 2.7 percent and 2.9 percent respectively.

"Global growth…is projected to rise to 2.7 percent in 2017. Growth in emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) is expected to pick up in 2017, reflecting receding obstacles to activity in commodity exporters and continued solid domestic demand in commodity importers," the World Bank said in its report released on Tuesday.

The World Bank also projected in its report the growth in the global gross domestic product for 2019 to stand at 2.9 percent.