(Bloomberg) -- The International Monetary Fund said that it can conduct an annual review of Russia’s economy for the first time since the war began because the region’s economic situation is “more settled” than before.
Conducting the annual economic reviews, known as Article IV consultations, is “a mutual obligation” of the Washington-based lender and its members, an IMF spokeswoman said in an emailed response to questions Tuesday. The IMF last published such a review in early 2021.
The IMF earlier this month announced its staff would start discussions with Russian authorities on Sept. 16 and then travel to the country for in-person discussions. The move came shortly after Ksenia Yudaeva, a former first deputy governor at Russia’s central bank, was appointed by Moscow as its representative on the executive board. She’s replacing Alexey Mozhin, who had held the position since the 1990s.
The “exceptionally unsettled” economic situation in the region since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 had made it difficult to conduct the Article IV evaluation, especially for the near-term and medium-term outlooks, the spokeswoman said.
“Now that the economic situation is more settled, Article IV consultations with Russia are resuming,” the spokeswoman said.
Russia’s economy grew 4% annually in the second quarter, according to an estimate last month by the country’s Federal Statistics Service, fueled by massive Kremlin military spending. While government outlays have cushioned domestic businesses against sanctions imposed by the US and the European Union, growth is likely to slow over the rest of the year, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
--With assistance from Viktoria Dendrinou.
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