The Bank of Russia lowered benchmark rates again on Friday and denied the economy is in a recession, even after its own data showed GDP has been shrinking this year.

The latest cut brought rates down by 1 percentage point to 17% and marked the third reduction since June as sky-high borrowing costs have helped cool inflation but are also straining the wartime economy.

While Russia had been remain resilient amid Western sanctions imposed after President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine in 2022, data from the central bank last week revealed more damage than previously thought.

A chart in a report showed GDP shrank on a sequential basis in the first and second quarters, meeting the definition of a so-called technical recession.

But central bank governor Elvira Nabiullina den

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