Page 56 - RusRPTOct22

4.3.2 Fixed investment
Rosstat reports that fixed investment rose in real terms as much as by 4% y/y in the second quarter even with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
However, the second-quarter fixed investment was largely driven by increased state budget spending by federal, regional and municipal governments.
At the same time, there was a pull-back in corporate fixed investment. When Russia’s high inflation in investment goods and services is taken into account, there was no real growth in corporate fixed investment.
The dearth of corporate fixed investment reflects the very bleak future prospects facing many companies. On top of the recent developments, Russia’s fixed investment trend has been really weak for many years.
4.5 Labour and income
4.5.1 Labour market, unemployment dynamics
Unemployment has been at a post-Soviet low of 3.9% for the last two months and while economists believe it will rise in the autumn the panellists from the PMI survey are still hiring as demand grows.
Rosstat’s second-quarter labour force survey finds that the number of employed persons rose further on-year despite the economic downturn. On the other hand, the increase in the number of employed persons that has continued for over a year has slowed substantially over the course of this year. About 72mn persons were employed in Russia in the second quarter, and the employment rate for the 15–72-year-old cohorts was 65.5%. The survey is based on the International Labour Organisation (ILO) methodology.
The number of unemployed persons continued to fall in the second quarter, but at a slower rate than last year and in the first quarter. Russia had fewer than 3mn unemployed persons, less than 4% of the labour force. A significant upsurge in part-time workers (less than 40 hours a week), however, continued. The number of persons who potentially could enter the labour force (persons not actively seeking a job but ready to work) continued to fall, standing at around 1mn in the second quarter.
The number of persons working in the formal labour market has increased briskly this year, a pattern somewhat atypical during Russian recessions. Like in previous recessions, however, the number of persons employed in the grey economy has dropped sharply. Of the over 13mn persons working in the grey
56 RUSSIA Country Report October 2022 www.intellinews.com