Page 13 - RusRPTJul21

“The recovery in consumption has been supported by rising wages and higher employment in the early part of the year. In January-March, the average real wage of Russians increased by almost 2% year-on-year,” BOFIT said.
These trends were all seen across Russia’s hinterland to various degrees. The volume of retail sales in the northwestern district was the same as in 2019, decreased by 2% in the central district and by about 3-4% in the other five districts, according to BOFIT. Fixed investment also contracted by a maximum of 3-4%, which concerned two important circuits, e.g. central, and remained fairly unchanged in the other three major districts, e.g. in the northwest.
“A comparison of current levels with pre-last year's levels also reveals differences. The change in output in the processing industry from January to April 2019 to January-April this year varies quite a lot in the five major processing industry federations,” BOFIT said.
“In the central district, the above-mentioned increase from two years ago was 18%. Half of the increase has come from an increase in production of almost 20% in the city of Moscow, which is a continuation of the upturn in the city's processing industry in 2018,” BOFIT reports.
Moscow accounts for 15% of the country's total manufacturing output. In the Moscow region, surrounding Moscow City, which accounts for 6% of the country's total production, the growth of the processing industry has continued for the sixth year, and in January-April it was 25% higher than two years earlier.
In the north-western district, the two-year growth rate of production in January-April was less than 3%, including production in the Leningrad region, that surrounds St Petersburg, increased by 7% (accounting for more than 2% of total national production).
In St. Petersburg (more than 5%), production did not increase at all, after growing quite rapidly in the previous couple of years. There were also large differences between the other three major processing industry federations (Volga 7%, Urals 14% and Siberia -3%).
Changes in the volume of retail sales in January-April are less variable than a year ago. The increase in sales in Russia has come from Kuta, almost entirely from the central, northwestern and southern federal districts, which account for 55% of the country's total retail sales.
“Sales in these three districts have increased by 7-9% from two years ago, while in almost all other districts the change in sales has been -1 - +2%,” BOFIT reports.
In the central and northwestern districts, 85% of sales growth has come from their large urban concentrations.
In Moscow, which accounts for 15% of the country’s total retail sales, sales have risen more than 6%, after also growing moderately in the past couple of years.
13 RUSSIA Country Report July 2021 www.intellinews.com