Page 24 - RusRPTJan22

(10.6% y/y in 10m21), which in turn resulted from the stronger growth in the agriculture sector.
Another sector that showed a pickup in growth, albeit less significant, was industrial production, which expanded 7.1% y/y in October on the back of higher output in the mining and quarrying sector (due to the increase in oil and gas output), up from 6.9% y/y growth the month before (5.0% in 10m21). Other sectors saw a slowdown. Construction activity was flat y/y after 0.1% growth in September (5.3% y/y in 10m21), still affected by the slowdown in mortgage issuance. Growth also slowed in retail trade (to 4.1% from 5.6%) and services provided to the population (to 14.2% from 14.9%), as the impact from one-off payments from the budget in August-September eased.
The situation in the labour market remained stable, with unemployment declining to the pre-Covid level of 4.3% in October. Real wage growth slightly accelerated in September (the October data is not yet available), but it remained relatively low at 2.0% y/y due to the high inflation (nominal wage growth stood at 9.6% y/y).
Going forward, we expect growth to continue to decelerate in most sectors, as tight monetary policy and the normalisation of fiscal policy will put some pressure on demand. Two sectors that will likely continue to show improvement are mining and quarrying (due to high commodity prices and strong external demand) and agriculture (which was negatively affected by adverse weather conditions and is now recovering).
24 RUSSIA Country Report January 2022 www.intellinews.com