French Finance Minister Emmanuel Macron hinted last week in Moscow
that his country would support an end to sanctions when they come up for
renewal in July this year.“The objective we all share is to be able to
lift sanctions next summer because the process has been respected”,
Macron French newspaper
Le Figaro. For sanctions to beextended beyond July, all members of the EU would have to agree.
Russia’seconomy shrank 3.7 % in 2015, the worst drop since the
depths of the global financial crisis, as the country struggled with a
drop in the price of its oil exports andinternationalsanctions, the
state statistics service said Monday.
The decline is the sharpest forRussiasince 2009, when the world
economy was suffering from the effects of a credit crunch and financial
crisis. It matched the most recent prediction from the IMF, which
forecasts another fall of 1 % in 2016 before a return to 1 % growth next
year.
The Russian state statistics service also said that last year saw a
10 % drop in retail sales — including a 15.3 % plunge in December
against a year before — and a one-thirddrop in foreign trade.
Oil and gas contribute around half of Russian state revenues and the
government has said it will have to make cuts to the budget for 2016,
which was adopted in October andbased on an oil price of $50 per
barrel.
The European Union and United States introduced economic sanctions
against Russian finance and energy firms in July 2014, four months after
the annexation of theCrimean peninsula, then an important part of
Ukraine along the Black Sea. Russian president Vladimir Putin recently
admitted that his government was also providing military support to
separatists in eastern Ukraine. A civil war there has left more than
9,000 people dead.
Both Washington and Brussels extended sanctions late last year, with the EU extending for six months in December.
France is keen on getting these sanctions lifted because they believe
Russia will return the favor and remove import bans on French dairy
goods, which have hurt companies like Danone.
However,the lifting of sanctions is unlikely to have any immediate
effect on the Russian economy in the current situation, when the price
of oil is the main factor.
(with AP, Reuters)
http://neurope.eu/article/france-supports-cancelling-sanctions-on-russia/