Sanctions? Russian economy to overtake Germany’s by 2020 – report

The top 10 countries will also include Germany, Indonesia, Brazil, Turkey, and the UK.

“By 2020, a majority of the world population will be classified as middle class. Asia will lead the increase in middle-class populations even as middle classes stagnate in the West,” said Standard Chartered researcher Madhur Jha.

The report predicted that Asian economies will grow significantly in the next decade, taking seven of the top 10 spots on the list of the world’s biggest economies by 2030.

Last week, the World Bank said in its economic outlook that it expects an increase in the growth rate of Russia’s GDP to 1.8 percent in 2020 and 2021. The bank reported that the Russian economy expanded at a 1.6-percent pace last year, experiencing “relatively low and stable inflation and increased oil production” despite the tightened economic sanctions.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised its forecast for Russia’s GDP growth in 2019 to 1.8 percent. The positive impact of rising world oil prices on the Russian economy would outweigh the negative effect of Washington’s sanctions, it said.

Meanwhile, the official figures from the Federal Statistics Office showed that Europe’s largest economy, Germany, slowed sharply in 2018. It grew by 1.5 percent last year, its slowest rate since 2013. A weaker global economy and problems in the car industry have been cited as contributing to the slowdown.

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