Russia’s economy is doomed

By Will Dunn – The New Statesman

GDP is the bluntest of economic measures, a single number made to describe the trillions of events and decisions that make up a modern economy. It has its uses, nonetheless, and its main purpose is to tell the simplest possible story about the direction an economy is headed: is it growing or shrinking? But simple stories are often misleading. Take the IMF’s pronouncement in April that Russia’s economy would grow faster than any of the G7 countries: Russia was winning the race! The Russian economy, commentators held, was “roaring”; it was “on steroids”.