Global financial services giant Citigroup plans to wind down its local commercial and consumer banking operations in Russia, joining more than 1,000 major companies that have done the same since that country’s invasion of Ukraine six months ago.

“Today’s decision is part of our continuing efforts to reduce our activities in Russia,” David Livingstone, Citigroup’s CEO for European operations, said in a statement Thursday. “It is aligned with other actions, including limiting our service offering, reducing our exposures and not soliciting any new business or clients.”

Well before Thursday’s announcement, executives of New York-based Citigroup cited growing impediments to its commercial banking operations fueled by multinational sanctions imposed against Russia after the February invasion. Citigroup announced in April 2021 that it was exiting its consumer-focused operations in Russia as part of a wider withdrawal from 14 markets in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Citigroup is also in the process of winding down financial arrangements with several multinational institutional clients that are themselves in the process of exiting Russia. The company expects its own departure to affect approximately 2,300 employees at 15 Citigroup offices that are expected to close.

“We have explored multiple strategic options to sell these businesses over the past several months,” Titi Cole, Citigroup’s CEO of legacy franchises, said in the statement. “It’s clear that the wind-down path makes the most sense given the many complicating factors in the environment.”

Citigroup now joins more than 1,000 companies that have announced plans to suspend or permanently halt operations in Russia, including McDonald’s, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Apple, FedEx and ExxonMobil, according to a list compiled by Yale University researchers.

The Commerce Department Thursday revised a prior estimate of gross national product decline for the second quarter, reporting the economy shrank at an annual rate of 0.6%. This is less than the 0.9% decline reported when the government made an initial preliminary “advance” estimate last month when less source data was available.

Analysts are closely watching for the department’s third and final report, slated for late September, for signs as to whether the U.S. economy has indeed entered a recession. That's traditionally been defined as two consecutive quarters of GDP decline, and GDP was down 1.6% year over year in the first quarter. The actual declaration of a recession can depend on other factors as well.

Whether the economy is contracting or expanding is a big deal for corporate real estate planners and many others. Several analysts and corporate leaders have predicted a recession is imminent within the next year if high inflation is not tamed, though there is no consensus on its severity if it indeed arrives.

The economy is showing numerous mixed signals that also include a strong employment market. And the Commerce Departed reported Thursday that the nation’s gross domestic income in the second quarter, adjusted for inflation, rose 0.3% from the prior quarter and 1.4% from the year-earlier period.

The data also showed second-quarter profits from manufacturing production rose $175.2 billion from the prior quarter, though profits of financial service corporations declined $24.2 billion.

Initial claims for unemployment insurance totaled 243,000 for the week that ended Aug. 20, down 2,000 from the prior week, the Labor Department reported. The four-week moving average was 247,000 claims, up 1,500 from the prior week’s figure but still historically low.

The total number of continued weeks’ claims for all programs, tracked on a more delayed basis, was approximately 1.4 million for the week that ended Aug. 6. That was down approximately 33,000 from the prior week and well down from 12 million in the comparable week of 2021.

Layoffs remain historically muted across most industries. The job placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported this month that U.S. employers announced plans for approximately 159,000 job cuts in the first seven months of 2022, down more than 31% from the year-earlier period.