Page 79 - RusRPTFeb20

9.1.4 ​Construction & Real estate sector news
Russia’s construction increased only marginally ​(+0.4% y/y in December, housing construction 4.9% in 2019), which diverges from i) the +22% y/y growth in federal budget expenditures in December, which were supposed to boost construction activity in the same period, and ii) VTBC index of construction materials output, which sees an advance to +5.1% y/y in 2019, with growth supported by the production of asphalt, Portland cement, oil bitumen, etc.
Rosstat revised the growth in construction activity for 2018 up 1pp, from +5.3% y/y to +6.3% y/y. While the divergence between construction activity and the output of construction-related materials is not yet sufficient to be sure that the data for the previous year will be revised, it is clear to analysts after putting together the two time series (the just reviewed construction activity for 2018 and the data before revision) that the 2019 data will be. The growth rate in January 2018 was revised up to +15.2% y/y from +12.2% y/y (a 3pp difference). The January 2019 number was shifted from +0.1% y/y to 0% y/y (just a 0.1pp difference).
City Hall announced a record housing commissioning in Moscow since 1965. ​4.96mn square meters of housing were built in Moscow in 2019 - a record value last seen in 1965, when prefabricated so-called Khrushchev apartments were massively built in the capital, Vice Mayor Marat Khusnullin told Vedomosti. However, without the development of a new region – the so-called New Moscow -- the figures would have been four times less and would not have broken the records of the Luzhkov era.
The record Khusnullin is talking about was achieved primarily due to the expansion of the administrative borders of Moscow in 2011-2012. In total,
79​ RUSSIA Country Report​ February 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com