The Russian economy is turning out to be more resilient than most experts expected, President Vladimir Putin said.
Speaking at a meeting with top officials on Tuesday, Putin said Russia's gross domestic product (GDP) in January-November 2022 declined by just 2.1%.
He said, Russia managed to bear the difficulties in finance, budget, structure and logistics that it faced last year quite successfully.
Overall in 2022, he expects the Russian economy to contract by only 2.5%.
According to him, the figure is better than the expectations of some domestic and foreign experts who predict a decrease of 10%, 15% or 20%.
Even so, Putin also acknowledged the economic risks the country may face in 2023 compared to 2022.
However, he is confident that the country can get through it because his administration has a better understanding of what is happening and the kind of difficulties that will be faced.
The war in Ukraine and Western sanctions have crippled several sectors of Moscow's economy in the past year.
These include the ban on its largest bank from the SWIFT financial network, curbs on its access to technology and a ban on oil and gas to Europe.
