Gross domestic product (GDP) only grew by 1.4% in the first quarter of 2025 – a notable decline from 4.5% growth in the previous quarter and 5.4% in the same period last year, the Moscow Times reported, citing Rosstat data.
The latest data from Rosstat came in below expectations: the Russian Economic Development Ministry estimated GDP growth at 1.7% and Bloomberg analysts predicted 1.8% growth.
Spending lots of the money you have saved up in your sovereign wealth fund is a good way to keep your economy afloat. Can also just do what the WW1-2 powers did and just borrow a lot if necessary, assuming there are people you can borrow from.
Does growth not account for this though? In my mind, spending saved up money or borrowing from others, does not represent economic growth
GDP is basically a measure of how much work is getting done. So, if you save your money, you’re not contributing to it. The moment you spend some, that spent money goes into the calculation.
Whether this constitutes any kind of real “growth” or not in your economy is a different topic. There are already debates on how useful GDP is as a useable measurement.
Keynes’s digging holes, IRL.