OREANDA-NEWS. The World Bank reported a record growth in the Russian economy in 2018. This is stated in the report "World Economic Outlook: Rising Tensions, Downturn in Investments". So, according to the report, last year the Russian economy reached a six-year high with a 2.3 percent record. According to analysts, Russia was able to achieve such a result thanks to an increase in world oil prices, an increase in export profits, as well as due to the implementation of several large energy projects and the holding of the World Cup. It's emphasized that this indicator was not affected by the strengthening of international sanctions and the pressure of the global financial market.

However, the World Bank also lowered the forecast for the growth of the Russian economy in 2019. So, experts have lowered the April forecast from 1.4 to 1.2 percent. According to the report, this is caused by lower oil production, tighter monetary policy, coupled with an increase in VAT at the beginning of the year. In addition, the World Bank lowered its forecast for global economic growth in 2019 from 3 to 2.6 percent, and in 2020, according to analysts, growth will be 2.7 percent. The European media reported that Russia increased gold reserves by 145.5 tons in the first quarter of 2019, which is 68 percent more than in the same period of 2018. Moscow in the first three months of this year purchased 55.3 tons, and the total reserve amounted to 2168 tons.

The reasons for the worsening forecasts at the World Bank are the global tendency to create trade barriers, financial "shocks", as well as a sharper recession in the economies of a number of leading countries. For example, in the USA, according to the forecast, the economy will grow by 2.5 percent by the end of the current year, and in 2020 this figure will drop to 1.7 percent.