{"id":16608,"date":"2026-05-15T15:11:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T15:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/15\/putin-hails-positive-economic-growth-in-march-despite-sharp-downgrade-in-annual-forecast-the-moscow-times\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T15:11:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T15:11:27","slug":"putin-hails-positive-economic-growth-in-march-despite-sharp-downgrade-in-annual-forecast-the-moscow-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/15\/putin-hails-positive-economic-growth-in-march-despite-sharp-downgrade-in-annual-forecast-the-moscow-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Putin Hails \u2018Positive\u2019 Economic Growth in March Despite Sharp Downgrade in Annual Forecast &#8211; The Moscow Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>President Vladimir Putin <a href=\"http:\/\/kremlin.ru\/events\/president\/news\/79756\" title=\"said\">said<\/a> Friday that government measures to stabilize the Russian economy have begun yielding &ldquo;positive results,&rdquo; even as the Kremlin this week slashed its annual growth outlook by two-thirds.<br \/>During a televised meeting with officials, Putin highlighted 1.8% growth in gross domestic product,&nbsp;<span>which measures all the goods and services produced in the economy,<\/span> for the month of March.<br \/>&ldquo;The measures and decisions the Russian government implemented recently have begun to yield a certain&nbsp;<span>&mdash;<\/span> let&rsquo;s put it cautiously, but still <span>&mdash;&nbsp;<\/span>positive result,&rdquo; the president said without specifying what actions had contributed to the month-on-month increase in economic activity.<br \/>He urged his cabinet to focus on &ldquo;substantial and sustainable&rdquo; growth, pointing to modest upticks in wholesale trade, retail and industrial production.<br \/>Still, the&nbsp;Russian economy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themoscowtimes.com\/2026\/05\/07\/russian-economy-shrinks-in-the-first-quarter-a92713\" title=\"contracted\">contracted<\/a> by 0.5% in annualized terms between January and March, <span>according to a medium-term forecast&nbsp;<\/span>published<span>&nbsp;by the Central Bank last week,<\/span>&nbsp;marking its first quarterly decline since 2023.<br \/>Putin&rsquo;s remarks also come just days after the government <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themoscowtimes.com\/2026\/05\/12\/russia-cuts-2026-growth-forecast-as-oil-revenues-and-wartime-pressures-weigh-on-economy-a92733\" title=\"released\">released<\/a> a grim update to its 2026 economic outlook. Policymakers now expect GDP to grow by just 0.4% this year, a significant decrease from their previous estimate of 1.3%.<br \/>The revision signals that officials are bracing for a prolonged slowdown as the country grapples with high inflation, labor shortages and the fiscal strain of the war against Ukraine, now in its fifth year.<br \/>Russia&rsquo;s Central Bank remains slightly more optimistic but still cautious, maintaining its 2026 growth forecast between 0.5% and 1.5%.<br \/><strong>A Message from The Moscow Times:<\/strong><br \/>Dear readers,<br \/>We are facing unprecedented challenges. Russia&#8217;s Prosecutor General&#8217;s Office has designated The Moscow Times as an &#8220;undesirable&#8221; organization, criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution. This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a &#8220;foreign agent.&#8221;<br \/>These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia. The authorities claim our work &#8220;discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership.&#8221; We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate, unbiased reporting on Russia.<br \/>We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themoscowtimes.com\/contribute?utm_source=contribute&#038;utm_medium=article\" title=\"we need your help\">we need your help<\/a>.<br \/><span class=\"contribute-article__strike\">Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just <span y-name=\"sign\">$<\/span>2.<\/span> It&#8217;s quick to set up, and every contribution makes a significant impact.<br \/>By supporting The Moscow Times, you&#8217;re defending open, independent journalism in the face of repression. Thank you for standing with us.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/rss\/articles\/CBMi0wFBVV95cUxQZ0lyRlZ5dUVNNElZYUpvQmx2RWszZExBS09XNTU2OEhlNWM4ckttSlRPUVJVNmhmbmNOUFhFYktSaVVTT0djX2pVR0R2Um44bDV5bVdMb01ScTh4VFMzQkw3TFFtSmxFZ1dTbkpidEJ0U0RYX0ZhcDJIZXZiTjBGZnpFZzdHYmJidGtEX0lkSlpDV0FfZXRhaEluVWFCbmtEQ3U0WjZWT3E4d2dRcWVQNU9Fd0VMNFJaOWxLaC1WMzRjTGJ1YUhGVHlRd25UM0MtaUV3?oc=5\">source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Vladimir Putin said Friday that government measures to stabilize the Russian economy have begun yielding &ldquo;positive results,&rdquo; even as the Kremlin this week slashed its annual growth outlook by two-thirds.During a televised meeting with officials, Putin highlighted 1.8% growth in gross domestic product,&nbsp;which measures all the goods and services produced in the economy, for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}