{"id":1361,"date":"2025-09-04T12:40:02","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T09:40:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroomin.eu\/en\/?p=1361"},"modified":"2025-09-08T15:15:50","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T12:15:50","slug":"technical-stagnation-sberbanks-german-gref","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsroomin.eu\/en\/technical-stagnation-sberbanks-german-gref\/","title":{"rendered":"Technical stagnation: Sberbank&#8217;s German Gref describes Russia&#8217;s economic slowdown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/newsroomin.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Gref-german.jpg\" alt=\"Herman Gref, Sberbank head, discusses technical stagnation.\" class=\"wp-image-15877\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">| Sberbank Head German Gref | Photo: Social Media |<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Russia&#8217;s economy is currently in a state of \u201ctechnical stagnation,\u201d according to <strong>German Gref<\/strong>, the head of Sberbank. Speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF), Gref noted that the slowdown in GDP growth observed in the second quarter, as well as in July and August, indicates the economy is approaching \u201czero marks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gref emphasized that a reduction in the key interest rate is crucial for economic revitalization, but he believes the current forecasts of around 14% by year-end are insufficient. For sustained economic growth, he argued, the rate should be 12% or lower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Alexander Shokhin<\/strong>, president of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), echoed this sentiment, suggesting that a 10\u201312% rate would be acceptable for the Russian economy as early as next year. This follows recent actions by the Russian Central Bank, which, for the first time in three years, lowered its key rate from 21% to 20%, then to 18%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Maxim Reshetnikov<\/strong>, Russia&#8217;s Minister of Economic Development, also acknowledged an \u201ceconomic cooling.\u201d He warned that this trend would lead to accumulated losses for businesses and delay a return to investment growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading has-white-color has-black-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-elements-9db95d7ad1e420180c994a509865574a\">What Is \u201cTechnical Stagnation\u201d?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The term <strong>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Economic_stagnation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">technical stagnation<\/a>\u201d<\/strong> is a <strong>coined,<\/strong> or more accurately, a <strong>conversational expression<\/strong>, rather than an official economic term. In academic and financial circles, other concepts are more commonly used to describe similar economic conditions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Stagnation<\/strong>: In a broad sense, this is an economic state characterized by zero or extremely slow economic growth, high unemployment, and stagnant production.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Recession<\/strong>: Officially defined as a decline in GDP over two or more consecutive quarters.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Stagflation<\/strong>: A more complex phenomenon combining stagnation (low economic growth) with high inflation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">German Gref likely used \u201ctechnical stagnation\u201d to describe a situation where the economy has not yet entered a full-blown recession but is showing <strong>clear signs of slowing down<\/strong> and treading water, teetering on the verge of negative growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newsroomin.eu\/en\/\"><strong>NEWSROOM IN<\/strong><\/a><strong> notes<\/strong> that many countries have experienced periods of stagnation or near-stagnation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Japan (1990s)<\/strong>: This period is known as the \u201cLost Decade.\u201d After the collapse of its financial bubble in the early 1990s, Japan&#8217;s economy entered a prolonged period of low growth, deflation, and stagnation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>USA (2000s)<\/strong>: Following the dot-com bubble burst in the early 2000s and before the 2008 global financial crisis, the U.S. economy experienced periods of slow growth, leading to discussions about a \u201cJapanese scenario.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Eurozone<\/strong>: Some European Union countries, especially after the 2008 global financial crisis, faced periods of stagnation. For example, economic growth in some southern Eurozone nations remained extremely low for many years, exacerbated by sovereign debt issues.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading has-white-color has-black-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-elements-ea8cee33b51e460bc3a262d268b45f94\">Russia&#8217;s Economic Challenges<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These statements about stagnation come amidst significant economic challenges for Russia. Experts estimate that after a peak growth last year, driven predominantly by military expenditures, GDP growth rates have fallen to 2% this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Half of Russia&#8217;s 2025 state budget is allocated to military spending, with 62% of these funds classified. Spending on the army and weapons production has tripled since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. These enormous expenses burden the economy, leading to a record budget deficit, which reached 4.9 trillion rubles in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Furthermore, international <a href=\"https:\/\/newsroomin.eu\/nr\/yevrosoyuz-i-velikobritaniya-vveli-novyye-sanktsii-protiv-rossii\/\">sanctions<\/a> and successful Ukrainian military strikes on military infrastructure and the fuel sector are increasingly impacting Russia&#8217;s economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Russia\u2019s economy is currently in a state of \u201ctechnical stagnation,\u201d according to German Gref, the head of Sberbank. Speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF), Gref noted that the slowdown in GDP growth observed in the second quarter, as well as in July and August, indicates the economy is approaching \u201czero marks.\u201d Gref emphasized that [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1360,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_newsroomin_seo_keywords":"","_newsroomin_seo_lead_override":"","_newsroomin_disable_ads":false,"_newsroomin_is_archived":"","_newsroomin_tooltips":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[356,353,47,354,355],"class_list":["post-1361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-russia","tag-economy","tag-german-gref","tag-russia","tag-sberbank","tag-technical-stagnation"],"tooltips":[],"newsroomin_tooltips":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsroomin.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsroomin.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsroomin.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsroomin.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsroomin.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsroomin.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsroomin.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsroomin.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsroomin.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsroomin.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}