- Russia lowers 2018 economic growth expectations
The 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia continues to occupy almost all of the news in the country. However, the forecast for the country's economy, announced last week, indicates that difficulties will continue despite rising oil prices.
The Russian Ministry of Economic Development downgraded the country's economic growth forecast for 2018 to 1.9 percent from 2.1 percent.
With a VAT increase to 20 percent next year from 18 percent, inflation is expected to rise by 1.2 percent. However, the ministry has not changed its estimate that real income would increase by 6.3 percent this year.
The increased VAT rate next year is anticipated to alleviate pressure on the budget. The government plans to generate an additional income of 2 trillion rubles (about $32 billion) over the next six years.
-Russia set to increase oil production
Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said last week that Russian companies would increase oil production by 200,000 barrels per day in July, under the new agreement with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and oil-producing countries.
'As of July, we plan to increase the oil production of Russian companies by 200,000 barrels per day,' Novak said, adding that Russia’s increase in oil production would be proportional to the volume of the previous agreement reached with OPEC.
After the OPEC meeting in Vienna last week, Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Khalid Al-Falih announced the organization and Russia had agreed to increase oil supply by 1 million barrels per day.
In 2016, Russia had pledged to reduce its daily oil production of 11.24 million barrels by 300,000 barrels per annum, based on the production cut agreement with OPEC.