Russia’s economy boom (Summer 2023) - The return of the Empire

Russia’s economy turned out to be solid and resilient, despite Western sanctions. There are no doubts anymore that sanctions miserably failed. Russian GDP is projected to grow 1.5% as minimum (even if Russian authorities have already predicted higher growth). Russia’s unemployment rate has touched one of the lowest downs along its entire history. The economy has almost completely recovered from initial sanctions strike in 2022 (except for industrial production which only in 2023 started to show signals of recovering). The ruble exchange rate problems were mainly caused by the worsening of the trade balance. This phenomenum has its roots in the increase of imports over exports, which it’s a great thing! That means that domestic demand is proving stronger than Western predictions, Russians buy goods and services and part of that (increased) demand partially falls on imports (as always happens in a modern open economy). The government is also playing a role in this, by significantly increasing go