Page 51 - RusRPTAug22

“Since the growth of fixed investments was 3.0%, it can be concluded that companies unloaded their stocks very significantly due to the war and sanctions,” the Bank of Finland institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT) said in its weekly update. “Otherwise, it is still difficult to see the wide-ranging effects of the war that Russia started on February 24, 2022, or the sanctions caused by the war, from the accounts of the national economy for the first quarter.”
At this time, the Russian statistical authorities have not published data on the development of exports and imports according to the national accounts, but it can be calculated from trade statistics that in 2016 prices, net exports clearly increased in the first quarter of the year. However, measured in this way, the level of net exports was lower than, for example, in 2020.
A year ago, the gross domestic product grew by 3.5% in the first quarter, which corresponds to previously published preliminary data. The real growth of value added in various sectors was very fast, especially in the important extractive sector, which was up by 8.6% y/y. The export of the industry's products was very large in the early months of the year. The growth of the manufacturing industry was 5.1%. Growth was otherwise relatively steady in several main sectors of the economy. The value added in construction grew by 4.7% from a year ago, in trade the growth was 3.7% and in transportation 5.4%.
The Central Bank of Russia publishes relatively detailed data on the payment traffic of companies every month. According to a recent report, the number of both outgoing and incoming payments decreased seasonally in June very clearly − 7.2% from the average level of the first quarter. The contraction of payment traffic occurred in almost all sectors, but the decline was particularly rapid in sectors dependent on external demand. Business payment traffic normally predicts nominal GDP growth quite well.
51 RUSSIA Country Report October 2020 www.intellinews.com