Tbilisi - The impact of Russia's economic crisis on its ex-Soviet neighbours will prove even more damaging than previously anticipated and continue into 2016, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said on Thursday.
Resulting from Western economic sanctions over the Ukraine conflict and falling oil prices, Russia's economic dive "is having larger-than-expected negative spill-over effects on countries with which it has strong economic links," the EBRD said.
Russia's gross domestic product is due to contract by 4.5 percent this year and 1.8 percent in 2016, according to the EBRD's latest economic forecast issued during its annual meeting held in the Georgian capital Tbilisi.
The bank's grim forecast for Russia's economy came despite hopes in Moscow that the ruble's recent rebound would lessen the economic fallout and see a return to growth next year.
"It is hard to see a rebound going forward without the reversal of the ongoing de-coupling of Russia's economy from the rest of the world and major structural reforms," the bank said.
AFP
