Page 23 - RusRPTJan22

social benefit for single parents with children aged between eight to 17. “These payments have been issued to the families that bring up a total of over 1mn and 300,000 children. In order for them to receive the money on time, the government will allocate almost RUB14bn in addition to the RUB36bn envisaged earlier,” he said. The government also wants to earmark more than RUB12bn rubles to raise wages of the public sector employees, he added.
According to the Russian Statistical Office's forecast, GDP grew by 4.6% year on year in January-September.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs estimates that growth accelerated slightly in October, when GDP grew by 4.9% year on year. In September-October, economic growth has been maintained, especially by growth in industrial production.
Industrial production grew by 7.1% year-on-year in October and by 5% year-on-year in January-October. In the manufacturing sector, output growth has slowed in recent months, and growth in industrial output is being boosted by the extractive industries in particular. In October, gas production was 12% and coal 11% higher than a year earlier. Oil production has also increased as OPEC + production restrictions have gradually eased.
The lump sums paid to pensioners and special groups in September
contributed to supporting retail trade in September-October. Despite this, the growth rate of retail trade has gradually leveled off. In October, the volume of retail trade was 4.1% higher than a year earlier. The epidemic situation has rapidly deteriorated and a week of paid holidays was set at the beginning of November, which also brought with it restrictions, e.g. restaurant opening hours ( BOFIT Weekly 43/2021 ). So far, the impact of the restrictions on economic development has been rather limited.
The rapid economic recovery is reflected in wages and price developments. The unemployment rate fell to a historically low level of 4.3 per cent in October, and nominal wages rose by 9 per cent year-on-year in January-September. Consumer price inflation has accelerated sharply in recent months, with consumer prices rising by 8.4% year on year in November. The rise in prices has been particularly strong in food and construction materials.
Basic sector output growth picks up to 6.5% y/y in October, supported by recovery in agriculture. The growth rate of basic sector output accelerated to 6.5% y/y in October from 4.6% y/y in September (it was 6.3% y/y in 10m21). In seasonally adjusted terms, output was up 1.4% m/m in October. The acceleration was mostly driven by a recovery in the agriculture sector, which grew 5.5% y/y in October after a 5.8% contraction a month earlier (output was up 2.9% y/y in 10m21). The uptick in basic sector output growth was also driven by an acceleration in wholesale trade growth to 13.3% y/y from 7.2%
23 RUSSIA Country Report January 2022 www.intellinews.com