The Russian economy is projected to decline by 4.5 per cent this year, a senior official said Saturday.
The drop will be "more than 4.0 per cent, (and) it will be even 4.5 per cent," Aleksei Kudrin, head of the country's Accounts Chamber, was quoted by Sputnik as saying at a forum.
Noting that the country will have roughly 1.0 million more poor people, Kudrin said that "we will need to focus more on those people who need support."