Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov said inflation will come in at 12-13 per cent in 2022, below earlier expectations, as the economy looks set to defy the gloomiest predictions of a near collapse in the face of Western sanctions.

In a televised government meeting, Belousov also said consumer goods imports had largely rebounded thanks to parallel import schemes designed to replace Western goods that firms have pulled from the Russian market.