Russia issues revised forecasts. TL;DR is “not as bad as expected”.

The economy ministry in Russia has issued revisions to forecasts for 2022 – 25:

• sees 2022 GDP contraction at 4.2% vs 7.8% previous mid-May forecast
• sees 2023 GDP down
  2.7% vs 0.7% in previous set of forecasts
• sees dollar/rouble
  average rate at 68.1 in 2022, 69.2 in 2023

Reuters pass along the info, citing documents sighted.

• Russia’s economy will contract less than expected and inflation will not be as high as projected three months ago, the economy ministry forecasts seen by Reuters showed, suggesting the economy is dealing with sanctions better than initially feared.

The forecasts are preliminary:

• The economy ministry left out forecasts for prices for oil, Russia’s key export, in the August set of data and offered no reasons for the revision of its forecasts. The forecasts are due to be reviewed by the government’s budget committee and then by the government itself.

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Once I heard Mcdonald’s was pulling out of Russia I thought the end was nigh. But, I did extensive research (OK, I watched one YouTube video) and the Russian replacement for Maccas doesn’t seem to be much different or much worse.