Russia Growth Stalls At 0.9 Percent in Q1

Russia’s economy slowed sharply in the first three months of 2014 as the Ukraine crisis slammed business confidence and investment.

Official Russian statistics showed gross domestic product grew by an annual rate of 0.9% in the first quarter. That compares with growth of 2% in the final quarter last year.

Russia’s economy has suffered due to rising military and political tensions with Ukraine, which have hurt its relationships with Western nations. Investors have pulled billions of dollars out of the country, hitting the ruble and pushing up inflation.

The central bank has responded by raising interest rates twice, squeezing businesses and households.
The European Union and U.S. have issued sanctions against high-ranking Russian individuals and some companies as they look to punish Moscow for annexing Ukraine’s Crimea region and encouraging separatist sentiment in eastern regions of Ukraine.

They’ve warned of tougher actions to come if Russia interferes with Ukrainian elections on May 25.

via CNN

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza