Head of Sberbank: The Russian economy entered "technical stagnation" in the second quarter of 2025

In the second quarter of 2025, the Russian economy actually entered a state of "technical stagnation". This was stated by the chairman of the Sberbank German Gref, writes the Russian Interfax news agency.

According to Gref, in July and August, Russia's economic indicators approached "zero." One of the main reasons for this was the high key rate of the Russian Central Bank.

"At current inflation rates, the rate at which we can expect the economy to recover is 12% or lower. Therefore, we are likely to see an economic recovery somewhere when these levels are reached."gref said.

How to writes To The Moscow Times, Russian Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshetnikov also said that the Russian economy is experiencing a strong cooling – the situation is quite difficult.

After two years of rapid growth, fueled by massive spending on the war in Ukraine, in 2025 the Russian economy began to slow sharply, to 0.4% year-on-year.

"In the economy, we see that many machine-building plants are currently underutilized and are switching to a four-day working week. In general, everywhere they are trying to optimize and reduce costs, including labor costs."mr. Reshetnikov emphasized.

According to the head of Sberbank, the loan portfolio could start growing steadily in the second half of 2025 if the Russian regulator cuts the rate by at least two percentage points.

Gref also noted that the real interest rate in Russia is now one of the highest in the world.

• Russia's budget deficit for seven months of 2025 reached 4.88 trillion rubles ($61.44 billion)or 2.2% of GDP. This is a quarter higher than the deficit for the entire current year of RUB 3.7 trillion, or 1.7% of GDP, envisaged in the budget law.
• On September 1, CPJ reported that the Russian metallurgy is experiencing the deepest crisis since the beginning of the great war in Ukraine.