Page 61 - RusRPTJan21

transport, as well as in oil and gas services. In addition, the decline in investment in the refining industry (excluding the production of petroleum products) sharpened slightly in the third quarter. On the other hand, in the two large and capital-intensive sectors included in the refining industry, namely the production of petroleum products and metals, investment has increased significantly. However, the larger than usual decline in total investment has been largely offset by a very strong increase in investment in health care and public administration, as well as in the education sector.
The increase in investments in the state budget sectors has also been reflected in the financing of investments, where funding from the budgets of various levels of government, mainly from the federal and regional budgets, has increased more sharply than in about ten years. Own-account investments by large and medium-sized enterprises have also maintained their position as by far the largest source of financing for investment in the midst of the recession. This has been facilitated to some extent by government support measures, e.g. in the form of business subsidies from the state budget, and overall, the assets of companies in banks have increased further this year.
Investment development during the rest of the year may remain weak, as capacity utilization in industry is at its lowest in ten years, according to Rosstat's corporate monitoring. According to the Central Bank of Russia, the weak development is anticipated by the fact that the possibilities to change investment plans and agreements have so far been quite limited.
4.5 ​Labour and income
4.5.1​ Labour market, unemployment dynamics
The interest rate crisis also hit the Russian labor market hard in the spring: employment fell and unemployment rose, wages were cut and working time reduction arrangements were introduced. ​The labor market situation has leveled off in later months of the year, supported by the economic recovery, but the darkening of the corona situation also significantly overshadows the labor market outlook.
Russia's unemployment rate (as defined by the International Labor Organization) has risen by about 2 percentage points during the interest rate crisis. The rise in unemployment came to a halt in September and the unemployment rate has been 6.3% in September-October.
The unemployment rate is at its highest level in a decade, but still clearly lower than in the 2009 crisis. In contrast, the number of people registered as unemployed has multiplied and reached a record high. In Russia, traditionally, only a small proportion of the unemployed have registered as unemployed
61 ​RUSSIA Country Report​ January 2021 ​ ​www.intellinews.com