No one wants Russia to implode but optimists have their work cut out For the state of Russia’s economy is parlous. A couple of weeks ago, the Russian ministry of economy slashed its forecast for average annual growth between now and 2030 from 4pc to 2.5pc. In fact, Russia’s economy has recently been extremely weak. It fell into technical recession in the first half of the year and it looks likely to post growth of only about 1pc this year, down from an average over the past decade of just under 5pc. Russia’s previously strong growth earned her inclusion in the group of countries known as the BRICs. In fact, this gave a misleading impression of Russia’s underlying dynamism. Russia’s strong past growth reflected a series of one-off factors which cannot be repeated. Most importantly, over the past 10 years, higher oil prices have increased Russia’s export earnings, and […]