Page 14 - RusRPTJul21

In St. Petersburg (accounting for less than 5%), sales have increased by 11%, continuing the good growth rate of the previous couple of years.
“The growth in the Moscow region around Moscow (almost 8%) and in the Leningrad region around St. Petersburg has been 12–13%, so their most recent period of growth since 2017 is e.g. Progress towards trade centers serving Moscow and St. Petersburg has continued,” BOFIT reports.
Fixed investment has developed considerably inconsistently in different parts of Russia. However, there is a reservation, especially when comparing short periods of investments, as investments vary not only during the year but also due to large projects.
The increase in investments from January to March 2019 to January-March this year has occurred especially in Moscow, where investments have grown by more than 20% and thus continued the rapid increase in 2017–2018. Moscow accounts for 17-18% of the country's investments. Moscow has also raised the growth rate of central district investment to more than 12% (30%).
In the north-west (over 10%), investment has fallen by almost a tenth, largely due to that in the Leningrad region, investment has fallen by 30% since January-March 2019 (after several previous years of booms) and in St. Petersburg even closer by 8% (after rising in 2018).
In the key districts of the Urals and the Volga in terms of investment (each accounting for 14–15%), investment has increased by 1–3% from two years ago.
Since the middle of the last decade, the production of the processing industry, and especially investments, have developed at quite different paces in different parts of Russia. There are also differences in retail sales, but last year sales were still lower in the six most significant federal districts than in 2014, after which retail sales slipped. In the northwestern district, however, retail sales were already almost at the 2014 level last year.
2.5 Russians consider the US to be the number one “unfriendly country”
Russians consider the United States to be the number one “unfriendly country” and that feeling is on the rise again, according to the latest poll by the independent pollster the Levada Center.
Russians had a generally positive view of the US for most of the years following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, hoping that America would come to Russia’s aid after the economic collapse following the fall of communism.
That changed dramatically following the annexation of the Crimea in 2014 when Russian President Vladimir Putin played on the “enemy at the gate”
14 RUSSIA Country Report July 2021 www.intellinews.com