Russia’s economy can overtake Japan’s – minister

Russia may overtake Japan as the world’s fourth largest economy in the coming years, Economy Minister Maksim Reshetnikov stated on Wednesday.  

Russia has already moved passed Germany, the EU’s economic heavyweight, in purchasing power party (PPP) terms and now has the fifth largest economy globally according to the same metric, the minister noted.

PPP is a metric popular with many economists that compares economic productivity and standards of living between countries by adjusting for the differences in the cost of goods and services.

“The Japanese economy is growing by less than 1%, while we are counting on growth above 2%. We can say that in the medium term, within three or four years, we are quite capable of overtaking the Japanese economy in size,” Reshetnikov said.  

President Vladimir Putin’s top economic adviser, Maksim Oreshkin, said earlier that Russia “is already breathing down Japan’s back in the race for fourth place.” He noted that China has already become the leading global economic power, while Russia is now the largest economy in Europe in PPP terms. 

According to the World Bank, China took the top spot globally in terms of PPP in 2022, while the US was in second place, followed by India and Japan. Russia rounded out the top five, while Germany was in sixth place.  

President Vladimir Putin recently stated that Russia’s GDP may have expanded by more than the previously estimated 3.5% in 2023, despite the fact that the country has had to operate under unprecedented Western sanctions.

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