(FOX NEWS) – The Russian economy is poised to collapse this year after the U.S. and its European allies hit the Kremlin with a slew of crippling financial penalties over its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Russian manufacturing activity plunged in March, contracting at the sharpest pace since May 2020 as businesses confronted a sharp rise in prices and a big decline in new orders. Western sanctions have effectively isolated Russia from the international financial system and prevented it from accessing new technology.
Experts think that is just the beginning of a major slide for the Russian economy this year. The Institute for International Finance (IIF), a Washington-based think tank, estimated that Russian gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods produced in a nation, could plunge by 15% in 2022 and 3% in 2023 as a result of the sanctions, wiping out decades of growth. A contraction of that size would be about twice as sharp as the Russian recession during the global financial crisis in 2008.
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