Russian President Vladimir Putin gave his assessment of the current economic situation in the EU on Friday, stating that it has entered a recession, but that Moscow takes no joy in noting the bloc’s misfortune.
Putin was speaking at a summit of the leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which is currently underway in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek. He was referring to some individual EU countries which are suffering from an economic contraction this year, as well as the weak growth forecast for the bloc.
“This is a recession. We aren’t gloating, we aren’t applauding, we aren’t grinning and chuckling – no, we are simply stating the fact. In the CIS, there is 2.2% growth, and the increase in industrial production is even greater, at 2.7%,” the president said.
Germany, the EU’s economic powerhouse, officially slipped into a technical recession in the first quarter of the year after contracting 0.3%. According to the latest estimate from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the nation’s GDP is expected to shrink by another 0.5% by the year’s end.
Germany’s energy intensive manufacturing sector was previously heavily dependent on energy supplies from Russia that have effectively dried up in the aftermath of EU sanctions on Moscow.
Other EU nations, such as the Netherlands, Ireland, Lithuania and Estonia also slid into a technical recession this year, as their economies shrank for two consecutive quarters.
The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional organization that includes Russia and many of its fellow former Soviet republics. They include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.
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