(FOX NEWS) – The Russian economy is poised to collapse this year after the U.S. and its European allies hit the Kremlin with a slew of crippling financial penalties over its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Russian manufacturing activity plunged in March, contracting at the sharpest pace since May 2020 as businesses confronted a sharp rise in prices and a big decline in new orders. Western sanctions have effectively isolated Russia from the international financial system and prevented it from accessing new technology.
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Experts think that is just the beginning of a major slide for the Russian economy this year. The Institute for International Finance (IIF), a Washington-based think tank, estimated that Russian gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods produced in a nation, could plunge by 15% in 2022 and 3% in 2023 as a result of the sanctions, wiping out decades of growth. A contraction of that size would be about twice as sharp as the Russian recession during the global financial crisis in 2008.
