WASHINGTON, April 25. /TASS/. Russia is ramping up domestic production and import phaseout in response to significantly reduced trade with European countries, Director of the European Department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Alfred Kammer said at a briefing.
"With regard to the European-Russian [trade] relations, fact is that there has been a decoupling taking place, or trade has been reduced quite considerably, and Russia, in response, has increased domestic production, import substitution and reoriented trade relations, in particular to China and India," Kammer said.
The Russian economy is expected to see "a quite sharp slowdown this year from last year's growth," the official said. Kammer believes that this situation is due to the special military operation implemented by Russia in Ukraine and may affect the transfer of technology in the future.
The IMF’s forecast for the Russian economy’s growth was revised to 1.5% earlier.