Russian officials and business leaders met at an economic forum this week. Russia's main interest rate is at 21% and could be hiked further still. Officials and business leaders shared pessimistic economic outlooks for 2025 at the Russian Economic Forum, held this week in Chelyabinsk, in central Russia. Andrei Klepach, chief economist at the state-run development entity VEB.RF, predicted that economic growth would fall from an estimated 2.5% to around 2% in 2025. Some, he said, would benefit from a subsidized interest rate of 1% to 5%.

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Persons: —, Andrei Klepach, Alexander Shokhin, Shokhin, Mikhail Mishustin, Alexander Novak, Kirill Tremasov Organizations: Service, Russian Economic, Central Bank of Russia, Industrialists, Russian, Russia's Locations: Chelyabinsk, Russia, Ukraine, Russian Union, Russian