Rosstat, the Russian statistics service, came up with a first estimate on Wednesday. The decrease of 4 percent follows a decrease of 4.1 percent in the second quarter. The Russian economy has been hit hard by the many Western sanctions that followed the Russian invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
Analysts had estimated the contraction in the third quarter to be more severe at -4.5 percent. The last ‘technical recession’, two consecutive quarters with a decline, dates from 2020, early 2021. Then the corona virus played tricks.