Russia Poised To Overtake Germany As The World’s Fifth-Largest Economy

A worker walks past pump jacks on an oil field owned by Bashneft company near the village of Nikolo-Berezovka, northwest from Ufa, Bashkortostan, January 28, 2015. New European Union sanctions against Russia could include further capital markets restrictions, making it harder for Russian companies to refinance themselves and possibly affecting Russian sovereign bonds and access to advanced technology for the oil and gas sectors, EU officials said on Wednesday. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin (RUSSIA - Tags: ENERGY BUSINESS INDUSTRIAL POLITICS)
Germany will soon be unseated by Russia as the world’s fifth largest economy. Despite taking a beating from sanctions, the Russian economy has emerged victorious even in the face of international pressure and low oil prices over the last few years.
UK-based global bank Standard Chartered has rated Russia as one of the top performers despite undergoing recession in 2015.
According to Standard Chartered, Russia has been able to stabilize inflation while increasing oil production. In contrast, Germany’s economy has been slowing down.
In 2018, the German economy grew only by 1.5 percent, its slowest rate since 2013 which sparked fears of recession.
According to StanChart’s global economy forecasts for 2030, the top five economies will soon be China, the United States, India, Japan, and Russia. Rounding out the top 10 will be Germany, Indonesia, Brazil, Turkey, and the UK.
The high growth in Asia will, by 2030, eventually place seven countries from this region among the world’s ten largest economies.
“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,” a Standard Chartered researcher noted.
The World Bank is also optimistic on Russian’s economic prospects and stated that it expects GDP growth in Russia to accelerate to 1.8 percent in 2020 and 2021, compared with 1.6 percent in 2018.
The International Monetary Fund or IMF echoed the same forecast and said that Russia’s GDP growth in 2019 would grow to 1.8% because the impact of rising oil prices would soften the effects of sanctions.
In its 2030 forecast, StanChart also issued a report highlighting the rise of China as the world’s largest economy surpassing the US.
Beijing has overtaken the United States as the largest importer of crude oil, with Chinese consumption approaching 13 million barrels per day. The PRC is expected to become the largest consumer of this raw material by 2025, accounting for 18-20 percent of global consumption. On that note, Russia is currently China’s most important oil supplier.