Even as the Russia military is flexing its growing muscles, the economy continues to shrink. It what may seem like a return to the heydays of the Soviet Union, the Russian economy contracted in the last quarter as rising unemployment sapped consumer demand, bank lending stalled and the government was slow to respond with support measures.
Bloomberg reported that gross domestic product contracted an annual 10.9 percent in the second quarter, the Federal Statistics Service said in an e- mailed statement today, citing preliminary data. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of seven economists was for output to shrink 10.2 percent. GDP expanded 7.5 percent from the previous quarter. The service’s data go as far back as 1995.