Putin Was Told That The Russian Economy Has Already Overtaken The US Economy
- 13.05.2026, 20:21
In reality, RF is between Trinidad and Tabago and Seychelles in terms of GDP per capita.
Russia's economy has outpaced the U.S. economy in terms of growth, the head of the Ministry of Economic Development Maksim Reshetnikov said at a meeting with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, The Moscow Times reports.
"Despite all these external challenges, sanctions pressure, <�...> our economy has proved itself quite worthy," Reshetnikov told Putin, showing color slides.
"If in 2017 our per capita GDP was 43% of the US, by the end of 2025 it will be almost 56%. At the same time, we were closing the gap, while, for example, many of our European neighbors tended to widen the gap, meaning they were lagging behind economically. This shows that we grew not only in accordance, but also outpaced the growth including in the American economy," Reshetnikov explained.
According to the International Monetary Fund, for 2026 Russia ranks 66th in the world in terms of GDP per capita - $18530, between Trinidad and Tabago and Seychelles.
This indicator, which is considered key to assessing the standard of living, Russia lags behind, for example, Panama ($20560) and Costa Rica ($20300), and to the average level of developed countries ($66180) falls short by about 3.5 times. Russia lags 5 times behind the United States ($94430) in GDP per capita, and 3.6 times behind Germany ($65300).
In the last three years, the Russian economy has grown by 10% and real cash income by 26%, but now a "stabilization phase" and "structural fine-tuning" has begun, Reshetnikov told Putin. The economy ended the first quarter with a decline for the first time since 2023, and although after the minus in January and February, GDP returned to growth in March, "it is premature to talk about the recovery of the trajectory as a whole," the minister said.
The day before the Ministry of Economic Development sharply worsened forecasts for the Russian economy for the current year and the next 3 years: according to its estimates, GDP this year instead of 1.3% will add only 0.4%, investment will continue to fall for the second year in a row, and the growth of real incomes of citizens will slow to 1%.
In the conservative scenario, which assumes a slowdown in the global economy and a drop in oil prices to $50, the Ministry of Economic Development allows GDP to fall by 0.5%, industrial production to decline by 1%, retail trade - by 0.4%.