The same Economist that was embarrassingly wrong in all their previous "predications" about that economy (you know, the one with their own space program, ton of natural resources, very low external and internal debt and neighbors/best buds with the worlds largest factory)?
The very same. Half of what you read in the Economist each week is insightful analysis you won’t find elsewhere; the other half is nonsense. The fun bit is figuring out which is which.
To be fair they seem to be somewhat accurate and objective. The Russian economy has proved to be unexpectedly resilient. Western countries continued buying Russian oil/etc. while restricting the exports of goods and services which lead to a massive current account surplus in 2022. They also have enough reserves to run comparable deficits to their current one for at least several years.
Of course having to raise interest rates to >20% while claiming that inflation is actually ~9% is not a good sign. Current account surplus is also going down and is pretty much where it was before the war.
Funnily enough the Russian government seems to be "fighting" the central bank by giving out mortgages and loans at a >50-80% discount. Which would indicate that (hopefully) their are forced to chose between inflation going our of control or most of the economy (at least the faction not directly dependant on government contracts) griding to a halt.
