The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised its forecast for Russian economic growth this year to 2.6 percent from an earlier estimate of 1.1 percent. Russian President Vladimir Putin is ramping up spending this year on defense and splurging on the population ahead of elections in March. Russia's economy has performed much better than experts forecast following sweeping Western sanctions imposed in 2022 as punishment for its invasion of Ukraine. Nonetheless, Russian growth will significantly trail other emerging markets, which are forecast to grow on average by 4.1 percent this year.
