The growth of the Russian economy in the third quarter of 2025, according to VTB estimates, was zero compared to the second quarter of the same year. This was stated at the VTB investment forum “Russia is calling! Krasnodar” by member of the board Vitaly Sergeychuk.
“According to our estimates, GDP growth for the third quarter was already zero compared to the previous quarter, with seasonality excluded. Based on the results of nine months, industries related to the military-industrial complex are growing, retail is growing, industries aimed at domestic demand. There is a decrease in export-oriented industries, extractive industries and related transport industry,” said the banker, quoted by TASS.
At the same time, according to Sergeychuk, unemployment has been setting “record after record” in recent years.
“This means that the period of extensive growth, when we used all the available labor resources in the country, has ended. And we can achieve the main growth only by increasing labor productivity and new technologies, developing new industries, because here the Krasnodar region is in a privileged position. both population growth and internal migration support the growth of the labor force, and again, this speaks to the attractiveness of the region,” says the top manager.
Previously, the Bank of Russia estimated Russia’s GDP growth in the third quarter of 2025 at 0.4% in annual terms.
Russian officials, in turn, stated that the Russian economy had entered a cooling period after high growth rates in the previous two years.