Fears of sanctions have a greater impact on the Russian economy than sanctions themselves, the International Monetary Fund’s mission chief to Russia said Wednesday.

“We have noticed that fears of sanctions could be much more sensitive than the sanctions themselves," said Antonio Spilimbergo, the head of the IMF mission to Russia and adviser to IMF’s European Department. "The fears that the sanctions could intensify,” he added.

The impact of sanctions against Russian officials and companies is hard to assess, Spilimbergo said, “but this feeling of uncertainty, particularly among investors, has a significant effect.”

Amid fears of tougher Western sanctions against Russia, the country’s main stock indexes slumped by more than 5 percent last week, while the basket of dollars and euros the Central Bank uses to track the ruble rose by 1.3 percent in the same period.

The IMF noted that the slowdown in the Russian economy, based on pre-existing structural problems, was exacerbated by geopolitical uncertainties related to the conflict in Ukraine.

On Monday, markets rebounded when it became clear that the new anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the US were mild.

RIA Novosti