Russia's economy is now forecast to have grown in 2013 at less than half the pace expected at the start of the year and will perform only slightly better in 2014, weighed down by weak investment and tapering consumer demand.
A Reuters poll of 15 economists said that gross domestic product had risen just 1.4 percent this year, when last December they had predicted an expansion of 3.2 percent.
Economists are also more pessimistic about the economy's well being next year than the government, envisaging growth of 2 percent, against the Economy Ministry's forecast of 2.5 percent.
Russia's economy decelerated sharply this year, reflecting deep structural problems that analysts and officials say undercut its long-term growth potential.
Investment by firms disappointed and international money has been flowing out of Russia, in part due to companies' concerns about political freedoms and the likely consistency of the legal backdrop in years ahead.
The fading of an economic success story that buoyed Vladimir Putin's first decade in power is increasingly a challenge to the president as he seeks reelection in 2018.
Economists now say there has been no growth in investment in tangible assets, such as buildings and plants, this year. A year ago, they had expected such expenditures would grow by 6 percent in 2013. For next year, they now expect a small rebound to 2 percent growth.
The pickup will come mainly from the expected spending from one of Russia's oil windfall revenue funds on infrastructure.
"However, their positive impact in 2014 should not be overestimated, as most likely it will not appear before the second half of the year," Maria Pomelnikova, an economist at Raiffeisenbank, said.
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The eurozone's second-largest economy is on the brink of another recession after a 0.1% decline in third-quarter GDP was compounded by poor manufacturing numbers for November. The unemployment data for the same month, confirmed the downbeat outlook as the ministry of work announced an additional 17,800 job-seekers signed on last month after a small drop in October.
The new figures bring the number of unemployed in mainland France to 3.29 million, taking it to more than 10.5% of the working population. The small rise in November was marked in all age groups, including the under-25s, who have been targeted by a new government contract scheme.
The minor drop in October of 20,500 people was the first time the total had fallen since April 2011. Halting the rise of unemployment in France was described as Hollande's "primary objective" since he was elected president in 2012.
France's Socialist leader has promised to get unemployment falling by year-end, although according to official forecasts it will not start to decline until the middle of next year.
In a statement, the ministry said the trend had improved over the past months, noting that the average monthly rise in jobless claims had eased from 30,000 in the first quarter to 18,000 in the second quarter, and 5,500 in the third quarter. Combining November's figures with October's – when they unexpectedly fell by 20,500 – monthly jobless claims are down 1,350 so far in the fourth quarter, it added.
"The reversal of the jobless trend is therefore well and truly in place in this fourth quarter of 2013," it concluded.
The work minister, Michel Sapin, said this week that the process of stimulating a job market beset by chronically high unemployment for more than a decade was a long-term effort.
"It's a battle that we are committed to, and that we are winning bit by bit, month after month," Sapin told RMC radio.
Official analysts, however, say that the predicted number of jobs that will be created between October 2013 and June 2014 – 76,000 – will not be enough to absorb the predicted rise in the active population of 113,000.
Just over a quarter of French people have a positive opinion of Hollande, according to a recent poll, the worst score for a French leader in 32 years. If GDP declines in the final quarter of 2013, as the latest manufacturing data indicates, France will enter another recession, having only emerged from another downturn in the second quarter of 2013.
analyst downgrade and worries about the stock's valuation ignited Friday's drop, burning many of the investors who had piled into the stock in recent days.
"The people who rode it up over the past few days all of a sudden got pretty nervous," said Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Banyan Partners, an investment adviser in New York with $4.5 billion in assets under management. "People are always looking for a quick way to make a buck. Twitter was the bet, until it wasn't and it ran out of steam."
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