Page 38 - RusRPTOct21

4.3.2 Corporate profits dynamics
The profits of Russian corporate profits soared in July, the last month of available data, rising to RUB2,767bn ($38.6bn) more than twice as much as the RUB1,061bn that companies earned in the same month a year earlier,ut also more than twice as much as the RUB1,070bn they earned in July 2019, the last year of strong growth. This July’s result wasy far the best result of any month this year as well as the best monthly result in the last five years, putting Russian companies on course of a banner year.
On a cumulative basis companies earned a total of RUB14,368bn ($197.6bn) in the first seven months of this year. That was almost triple the RUB5,370bn they earned in 2020 and a third more than the RUB9,111bn they earned in 2020.
While the economic bounceback haseen in positive territory since March of this year for the economy as a whole, the growth figures remain lackluster. However, as a microeconomic level companies are earning extremely good profits.
The government is well aware of their good fortune and has moved to impose a series of tax hikes and changes to tap into this windfall,ut so far has not pulled the trigger on any of these changes. The metallurgical sector haseen singled out in particular and the government is talking about increasing the
38 RUSSIA Country Report October 2021 www.intellinews.com