Sanctions bring Russian economic growth to standstill: IMF

Sanctions imposed on Russia over Ukraine have brought growth to a standstill, had a "chilling effect" on investment and could force Moscow into economic isolation, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday. The international lender's report chimed with words from Russia's central bank governor, Elvira Nabiullina, who told a banking conference that growth was not only unsatisfactory but was putting the country in a difficult situation.
Russia has been hit by sanctions from the United States and European Union, prompting investors to pull out of a country where leaders have used the punitive measures to call for a more self-sufficient, or patriotic, course for the economy. With the Fund keeping its growth forecast at 0.2 percent this year, and the Russian central bank's at 0.4 percent, both undercut the Economy Ministry's hopes that its 0.5 percent estimate would be beaten this year and come in closer to 1 percent.
"Even without the escalation (of the Ukrainian crisis), prolonged uncertainty and the resulting deterioration of confidence could lead to lower consumption, weaker investment, and greater exchange rate pressure and capital outflows than assumed under the baseline," the IMF said in a report. "Moreover, this risks derailing the reform agenda and a shift toward more emphasis on economic self-reliance rather than integration with the rest of the world."
President Vladimir Putin has called for business leaders to repatriate their assets and reduce their dependence on Western financial markets after Russian officials, many of them his close allies, were targeted by the sanctions which included asset freezes and visa bans. But measures to try to protect the economy failed to stop Russia losing $80 billion in capital flight in the first five months of the year, the rouble losing 10 percent of its value against the dollar and inflation spiking.
The governor of Russia's central bank, Elvira Nabiullina, said economic growth was too low, causing concerns about investing in Russia. "The rouble's long-term stability is possible only by lowering the outflow of capital," Nabiullina told a central bank conference in St Petersburg. Some Russian officials have played down the impact of sanctions on the economy, but the IMF said the "chilling effect" would hurt an economy at a crossroads when it might dump attempts to diversify away from its oil dependence. "This comes at a crucial moment when the old growth model based on energy and use of spare capacity has been exhausted and moving to a new growth model based on diversification requires new investment, including foreign technology," the IMF said.