After several years of mounting fierce criticisms over the operations and performance of International Monetary Fund [IMF] and consistently advocated for its structural reforms, Russia has reversed its position to get back into and strengthen its position with this multinational organization. With the current geopolitical shift which is reshaping the world’s economic architecture, Russia has again prioritising its association by a fresh announcement over an appointment of a representative with IMF.
In February 2024, the International Monetary Fund [IMF] endorsed Russia’s macroeconomic programmes, further describing it as admirable steps, and primarily with pivotal development initiatives which is integral to its broader strategy for transforming an ambitious modern economy. In fact, IMF director Kristalina Georgieva, upgraded the forecast for Russia’s growth. Reports have also indicated that Russia was on the right pathway to achieve more to maintain its 4th position on the rankings. The IMF doubled its forecast for Russian growth in 2024, boosting its prediction from 1.1% to 2.6% in January. And that marks the biggest jump for the former Soviet republic, Russia.
But on the other hand, Russian economic conditions are starting to look more and more like the country’s 20th-century predecessor, where high production levels clashed with weak demand. “That is pretty much what the Soviet Union used to look like,” Kristalina Ivanova Georgieva-Kinova, who is a Bulgarian economist serving as the 12th managing director of the International Monetary Fund since 2019, said at the World Governments Summit in Dubai. “High level of production, low level of consumption. I actually think that the Russian economy is [in] for very tough times, because of the outflow of people and because........