The International Monetary Fund (IMF) now expects Russian GDP to shrink 3% this year, compared with its previous forecast for 0.5% decline, the IMF said in its updated World Economic Outlook Update (WEO).

The IMF estimates the Russian economy grew 0.6% last year, more than the 0.2% growth it expected in October.

The Russian economy might fall 1% in 2016 - the IMF said in its previous forecast that it thought growth of 1.5% possible that year.

CIS economies as a whole might fall 1.4% in 2015 - this is 2.9 pp below the IMF's previous forecast - and grow 0.8% in 2016, which is 1.7 pp below the previous forecast. Not including Russia, the CIS economies might grow 2.4% in 2015 and 4.4% in 2016, compared with previous forecasts of 4% and 4.6%, respectively.