The oil crash of 2014 where oil dropped from $140 per barrel to around $35 per barrel only shrank the Russian economy by 4% and it rebounded and recovered from that in just 6 months.
Rebounded?! By what measure? The Russian economy has been in recession (ie negative growth) over the last two years (admittedly due to both the current oil prices, and international sanctions). The only rebound is that the rate of growth is returning to zero... i.e. the recession is bottoming out.
And the only reason their economy has not shrunken more is that they have burnt vast amounts of their foreign reserves keeping things afloat: The Russian state profits directly and heavily from their oil industry, and they use it to fund a large public sector - 30% of Russia's workers are paid directly by the state.
Oil accounts for over 50% of their exports, and they need a high oil price because their extraction costs are so high... Their economy is very vulnerable to any reduction in worldwide oil demand, or a surplus of supply.
Oil is only a profit for a few Oil Baron Oligarchs for the rest of the economy oil is a COST! ...;same goes for the rest of the world.
Yawn, been reading the Morning Star again? The standard of living in *most* middle eastern oil producers is incredibly high, if you're a citizen. Venezuela saw a huge wealth redistribution to it's poorest citizens in the Chavez years, funded by oil. Look what's happened to Norway, and to a lesser extent the UK, since oil was discovered; their people do very well. Oil producers pay a lot of tax.
Quotebloomberg.com/news/articles/20…cast-as-crisis-peters-out
Even with sanctions the Russian economy is doing very well.
LOL the headline of that article says "Russian Economy Shrinks Less Than Forecast". That's hardly "doing well"!
