The World Bank has upgraded Russia from an “upper-middle-income” to a “high-income country,” demonstrating the failure of the US-led sanctions campaign against Moscow.
The World Bank said in a report issued on Monday that “economic activity in Russia was influenced by a large increase in military-related activity in 2023.” The Russian economy also got a boost from a nearly 7% increase in trade, an 8.7% growth in the financial sector, and a 6.6% increase in the construction sector.
“These factors led to increases in both real (3.6%) and nominal (10.9%) GDP, and Russia’s Atlas GNI per capita grew by 11.2%,” the World Bank said, according to The Moscow Times.
Russia has significantly increased trade with China since it launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The two nations had already been boosting their economic relationship in the years prior as they were both facing sanctions from the US and other Western countries.
The China-Russia economic relationship has infuriated the US, and the Biden administration recently issued new sanctions targeting Chinese companies, but they’re not expected to have an impact. If anything, more US unilateral economic measures will increase the trend.
Russia has also been able to significantly increase its production of ammunition, tanks, and other military equipment. Earlier this year, CNN reported that Russia was producing three times as much artillery ammunition as the entire NATO alliance, demonstrating that when it comes to the war in Ukraine, time is on Russia’s side.
