Western countries have overestimated the effectiveness of their pressure on the potential of the Russian and Chinese economies; all efforts to curb growth have the opposite effect, said Igor Sechin, Executive Secretary of the Russian Presidential Commission on the Strategy for the Development of the Fuel and Energy Complex and Environmental Safety, Chief Executive Officer of Rosneft.

Speaking at the opening of the 6^th Russia-China Energy Business Forum, Sechin noted that cooperation between Russia and China is developing under unprecedented external pressure. "However, all efforts to curb the growth of our countries lead to the opposite result: The GDP growth rates of China (5.2 per cent in 2023) and Russia (3.6 per cent in 2023) are well above those of Western countries and the global average," he noted.

"At the same time, I would like to note that the West initially overestimated the effectiveness of its pressure on the strong potential of our countries' economies. Last year, for example, the IMF raised its forecast for Russia's GDP growth four times. Russia's GDP growth at the end of the year exceeded initial expectations by almost 6 percentage points," said Igor Sechin.

A similar situation was observed in the case of China. "Despite the "inevitable" slowdown of the Chinese economy repeatedly predicted by Western observers, the IMF forecasts that China's contribution to global economic growth over the next five years will be 21 per cent, which will exceed the combined contribution of all G7 countries (20 per cent)," he concluded.

Rosneft
Information Division
July 23, 2024