Russian Economy General News: #1

You want to see crazy bureaucracy check other ex Communist countries. Hungary would be really bad while Estonia would be best in this regard. It's funny that they are pretty much same people who runs things but instead of CCCP flag we have EU one. When they go away they leave warm seat to other fat pig. It's one of the main thing that hinders Eastern European development so much and not only Russian thing, but for the size of Russia it is hard to achieve anything overnight.

GarryB wrote:Regarding moving Russian capital to Siberia... I read a suggestion by a Russian official that every 10-15 years the Russian capital should be moved... the idea is bourne from the fact that a lot of money is spent on the infrastructure of the capital to allow it to be the capital of Russia and that such investment always on one place does little to stimulate growth elsewhere in the country.

Changing every year would be expensive and wasteful, but every decade to decade and a half would allow infrastructure upgrades to be fully implemented.

I think Russia does need to think of cities outside of Moscow.

Lots of places - Brasilia, Canberra, Washington, Bonn etc grew as capitals so as not to have everything revolving around one of the "big 2" etc.

The EU has split sites for law, Parliament and stuff. And most countries have key government sites in different cities.

Moscow is an overwhelmingly world city. St P can be, esp if Ohkta Centre and the Olympics bid have an effect. Perhaps Sochi could even become a semi offshore zone, like Monaco, San Marino etc.
Maybe Kaliningrad could become a "Liechtenstein/ Luxembourg equivalent".

I think it would be good to have Vladivostock of the great "window on the East", as St P began as..

There's something a bit dated about having one city as the "be all and end all". You see it with Ldon and Paris, then the rest of England and |France, the cities are barely on the map. Italy, Spain, the USA, China all have multiple key centres. So it would be good for Russia to have a substantial number of global cities.

Perhaps having the capital outside Moscow even 1 year in 4 would really build up say, Yekaterinburg/ Novosibisk etc. Ofcourse there would be difficulties, but also benefits... I'm not sure how to balance it, but certainly, it would be good to consider options.

Perhaps the start should be the Sochi GP/Olympics, the World Expo bid at Yekaterinburg and Vladiv. as the window on the East. There is certainly room for optimism.

i saw news russia is in recession in second quarter by some western media?
but lets wait for yearly results  

Why you don´t passe the ridicule stage...?

http://rt.com/business/russia-technical-recession-hse-306/
from russia today .

Rpg type 7v wrote:http://rt.com/business/russia-technical-recession-hse-306/
from russia today .

This time around officials are not too optimistic, with Russia’s Minister for Economic Development Andrey Belousov warning that a recession could hit the country in autumn. But at the same time Belousov is questioning whether the HSE index is indicative and reliable. Talking to Vedomosti daily the minister said it was too early to talk about a formal recession in Russia.

So they are guessing more or less.

The best case scenario sees the maximum economic growth of 3% this year, Dmitry Belousov said. “The current economic construction has a very small margin of safety – not even in terms of a crash but in terms of readiness for growth,” the expert concluded.

This was obvious since the beginning of this year.  While automakers in Russia saw a growth so far, same with various other industrial groups (steel companies, oil/gas, some high tech companies as well), but that only translates to some industries here and there and not everywhere altogether.

GDP growth these days seems a tad bit strange and off, especially when China, largest GDP growth compared to all other countries this year, takes into account its huge growth to infrastructure development, yet they build ghost cities (people cant afford to live in these accommodations).

So in reality, it seems majority of growth for various countries comes from criminal style development.

Here is Russia's recession:

Building in St. Petersburg increased at a stunning speed

During January-June 2013 the volume of housing in St. Petersburg increased by 75% .
In the I half of 2013 in St. Petersburg, put 947, 5 thousand square meters. meters of housing. This is 75% more than the same period last year, according to Rosstat. At the same time, the city has put 4.2% of the total volume of housing commissioned in Russia in January-June this year.

"Aeroexpress" increased passenger traffic by 25%

There is also a 5 percent increase in sales of tickets at special rates "Family" and "Child" for people with children. The company believes the growth in demand for services UFA traditional for the summer months. "Traditionally, aeroexpresses passenger traffic in the summer months increases by at least 20-30% compared to other periods of the year

Release of gasoline in Russia has increased over 7 months 2.8%

The volume of gasoline in Russia in January-July 2013 increased by 2.8% compared to the same period in 2012 and amounted to 22,296 million tons, it follows from the CDU TEK.
Production of diesel fuel increased by 3.2% - up to 41.447 million tons. Production of fuel oil increased by 2.1% - up to 44.053 million tons of jet fuel - by 0.4% to 5,892 million tons.

The Reserve Fund Russia in July rose 1.3 percent

The Reserve Fund of Russia in July 2013 increased by 1.3 percent and amounted to 2.807 trillion rubles, the volume of the National Welfare Fund (NWF) increased by 1.1 percent - up to 2.858 trillion rubles. This was said in a statement the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, reports RIA Novosti .

Ministry of Agriculture: to July 26 in Russia collected 33.6 million tons of grain

By 26 July, Russia harvested 33.6 million tons of grain, which is 8.8 million tons more than in July 26, 2012 The average yield was 28.5 centners per hectare (kg / ha), which is 23.9% above last year's crop, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

Belgorod Airport in January-July 2013 increased passenger traffic by 37%

Belgorod International Airport (JSC "Belgorodavia") in January-July 2013 increased passenger traffic by 37% compared to the same period in 2012 - up to 109.9 thousand people, the company said.
International air lines (IAL) in the first half of the year 2013 benefited from 27.3 thousand passengers, which is 2.25 times higher than in the first six months of last year.

For the first half of this year, Tambov industry showed growth

For the first half of this year, Tambov industry showed growth of 6.3%, agriculture - 15.5%, the construction industry - by 9.5% compared to the same period last year. The growth trend is observed in the volume of cargo transportation, wholesale and retail trade, catering and services to the population. On the socio-economic situation in our region over the past six months said today at a press conference the head of Vladimir Tambovstata Roukin.

Don industry is increasing production

The index of industrial production in the Rostov region on the basis of half-year was 105.7% compared to the previous year. The Deputy Governor of the Rostov region - Industry and Energy Minister Alexander Grebenschikov the briefing.
Traditionally faster pace develops military-industrial complex. Rapidly developing major enterprises of the region showing the highest results. For example, "ROSTVERTOL" and "Beriev. GM Beriev "signed long-term contracts, which allows to predict a steady increase in production and shipment of up to 2013.

On the residential construction  in the I half of 2013

In the I half of 2013. commissioned 278.2 thousand apartments with a total area of ​​22.6 million square meters, accounting for 107.6% of the corresponding period of the previous year (in the I half of 2012. was introduced 21.0 million square meters of housing, 101 , 7% to the I half of 2011.).

Among the subjects of the Russian Federation, the largest volumes of housing construction were carried out in the Moscow region, where 10.0% of the administered put into operation a total area of housing in Russia as a whole, the Krasnodar region - 7.5%, Moscow and Tatarstan - by 5.3% Tyumen Oblast and the Republic of Bashkortostan - by 4.5%, St. Petersburg - 4.2%, and the Rostov region - 3.7% of the Leningrad region - 2.5% of the Belgorod region - 2.4%, the Stavropol Territory - 2, 2%. In these regions of the Russian Federation is built a little more than half of the total area of housing introduced in Russia.

In the Altai region the index of industrial production in the first half of the year amounted to 103.9%

The volume of shipments of goods of own production in the sector amounted to 38.6 billion rubles - 112.8% compared to last year.
The index of industrial production in the meat industry in January-June in the Altai region was 101.4% . Total growth of output in the industry provided increased production of meat and offal, canned meat, keeping the level of last year's production of sausages.

I am sorry, but , how much is 2.858 trillion rubles in euros or dollars, for me to understand.
I try to exange rates but i think the numbers are noy correct, if someone can help i appreciate.

1 Trillion roubles is ~ $30 Billion , so 2.85 trillion rouble is equal to roughly $85.5 Billion dollar.

dino00 wrote:I am sorry, but , how much is 2.858 trillion rubles in euros or dollars, for me to understand.
I try to exange rates but i think the numbers are noy correct, if someone can help i appreciate.

devide by 30 to get $ and devide by 40 to get €,thats the easiest way, 1 $ always moves around ~30RUB or ~40RUB if 1€

Thanks,  Austin.
NationalRus how are you allowed to have that sentence... Kill a commie?

dino00 wrote:Thanks,  Austin.
NationalRus how are you allowed to have that sentence... Kill a commie?

kill a commie/nazi same thing, just a expression of the soul means nothing, now lets not turn political

lets not turn political... kill a commie!... ok

If i say(obviously i will not), kill a russian, if you don´t like, can i say, lets not get patriot...?

well it was sobvious this year agriculture will be growing ,because of good climate this year and last years droughts , but still average yield per hectare is 2x less then in western europe.

More news on so called "Economic Slowdown of Russia":

Foreign investment in the Novosibirsk region. increased by 44% relative to I floor. 2012

In the I half of 2013 the economy of the Novosibirsk region received 394.6 million dollars of foreign investment, which is 44% more than in the corresponding period last year .

Economic investment undertaken in 60 countries. The main investor countries: Cyprus (16.2%), United Kingdom (14.4%), Germany (9%), Azerbaijan (7.7%), Switzerland (6.5%), Tajikistan (5.8% ).

"Novatek" I respect the floor. 2012 natural gas production increased by 9.0%, liquid hydrocarbons by 11.9%

In the I half of 2013 gross production totaled 31.29 billion cubic meters. meters of natural gas and 2,383 tons of liquid hydrocarbons. Compared with the I half of 2012 natural gas production increased by 2.59 billion cubic meters. m or 9.0 %, and gross liquids production increased by 254 thousand tons, or 11.9 %.

Kaliningrad Sea Commercial Port for 7 months increased turnover by 36%

OAO "Kaliningrad Sea Commercial Port" (KSCP) in January-July 2013 increased turnover by 36% compared to the same period last year - up 2.5 million tons, the materials of the company.
Exports of goods increased by 18.3% - up to 1.515 million tons. In particular, exports of ferrous metals increased by 15.6% - to 814.4 thousand tons of coal and coke - by 2.1 times to 154.1 thousand tons. Scrap metal exports fell by 18.7% - to 75.3 thousand tons. At the same time, exports of other general cargo decreased by 10.8% - to 77.4 thousand tons of container cargo - by 32.9%, to 42.8 million tons. Exports of petroleum products increased by 20.8% - to 258.5 thousand tons.

Russia in July increased grain exports by 17%

MOSCOW, August 5 - Prime. Russia in July, that is, in the first month of the new selhozsezona, exported 2.396 million tons of grain, which is 17% higher than the same period last year, said the analyst firm LLC "ProZerno" referring to the preliminary data of the Federal Customs Service.

Moreover, compared with June shipments in July rose by 4.5 times.

According to "ProZerno" July Russia exported 1.905 million tons of wheat, 450,000 tons of barley, 39 000 tonnes of maize and 3,000 tons of rye. Thus, besides the rye export growth expressed in all grain commodities: wheat added 6%, the supply of barley grown in half, corn - six times.

"VSW" (Voronezh) in the I half-year increased production of rocket engines of 8.3% with respect to I half-year 2012

On the "Voronezh Mechanical Plant" in the first half of 2013 the volume of commodity output in the direction of "Trucks" (production of liquid rocket engines for carrier rockets "Proton", "Union", as well as for the upper stage RSC "Energia") reached 1 , 5 billion rubles, which is 8.3% higher than the data in 2012.

"WEC" increased electricity exports to China by 92% relative to I floor. 2012

Total for the first half of 2013 the volume of electricity exports to China amounted to 1.89 billion kWh, which is 92% higher than the result of the first half of last year - 984.5 million kWh .

In the second quarter of 2013 the volume of electricity exports to Mongolia totaled 102 million kWh, only the first half of this year, exports to Mongolia totaled more than 175 million kWh, which is 5% higher than in the first half of 2012.

I know some Russian's are not entirely fond of Sdelanounas because of their strange pessimistic nature of hating whatever is happening in their own country, so if you anyone of you are one of those, please look at the bottom of each article at Sdelnounas, as the people from that site are very good at referencing their sources.

Rpg type 7v wrote:well it was sobvious this year agriculture will be growing ,because of good climate this year and last years droughts , but still average yield per hectare is 2x less then in western europe.

Interesting stat, but there are other factors to consider.
America will just chuck down a load of genetically modified poison.
What is the Euro approach? Immigrant labour from the 3rd world? Or very possibly carcinogenic fertilisers.

Aiming for the World's best yield might be a dangerous path. After all, unlike England etc, Russia isn't remotely short of land.

flamming_python wrote:All of that is good news but without context it's irrelevant. We need the overall figures for GDP growth and Industrial growth from the country as a whole.

Maybe all of these enterprises increased production by x%, while an equal number of facilities had decreased sales/production by just as much.

The main solid news that I see here is the huge increase in this year's harvest. Albeit as rpg 7v said it's in comparison to last year's which was small due to a drought, but still it's great news.

There is mention of regions growth too, re-read though some of my posts, it is there.

At that, GDP growth for the entire country as a whole is really a hard thing to calculate.  Like I mentioned before, industry grows, but the economic structure as a whole in Russia may not, and that is because a lot of Russia's GDP growth is in Taxes as well as development and investments.  Look at US GDP growth.  It grows based upon its debt.  Their economy is worth $16T, yet their debt is exactly that much.  Strange, no?

GDP stagnation in Russia from what I have read (I think Austin posted it here before) is high increase in wages with similar production output.  But a lot of the GDP growth is coming from construction, taxes and maybe from the farmers.  As the worlds population continues to incline, Russia really needs to put more emphasis in its farming.  Mind you, I keep reading about meat production plants propping up everywhere in Russia, and more push for farming, but for the vast lands of Russia, MANY of it is not being tapped into.  As well, the major issue Russia (I THINK) faces today is their villages and towns.  Villages barely get the basic necessities and towns are usually under developed.  The other issue is the far east is becoming just as expensive to live in, as Moscow and St.Petersburg, while a lot of their living wages are still the same as the 90's (unless you work for a private company).  There is a push for development of far east, but it is going extremely slow, only 20% done for a period to 2020, because of political incompetence.  Thanks to Stalin and his era, there are too many villages spread around here and there, making it far too costly in infrastructure development in order to provide the necessary necessities in those areas (much like the outer rims of Detroit to the inner city).  To fix this, I truly believe that the government needs to put emphasis on planned communities, by finding the middle ground between various villages in a district, and convince the villagers to move to the towns, and or start turning a single village out of various in a group, into a town and put emphasis on agriculture and what not.

The Tax issue goes all the way back to the concept of Black Bookings.  Black bookings is where companies hire accountants to find ways to avoid taxes and or to reduce their taxes considerably.  I have read I think on RIAN or maybe ITAR-TASS that the amount in the underground bookkeepings is something around 20 - 25% of the GDP, so something like $90B is lost to the federal government, due to such practices.  As well, the move of capital flight, where business owners are purposely moving their money to assets offshore like Cyprus, is what also is hurting the economy big time.  Recently, a bill that was pushed to get officials to submit the information regarding their assets from overseas, saw some blowback by senators who have assets overseas.  Two of them were owners of a Bank and a Construction company - go figure, the two most well known corrupt industries.  Too many people, oligarchs, own assets abroad, and spend the Russian money on other assets overseas, which does very little justice.  Like Prokhorov, who owns a NBA stadium in NY.  Seriously?  That costs way too much money and the man blew it on that?

There should be a rule in Russia: that no business man can become a government employee.  Because as soon as one does get in, they end up using their power to abuse the system as have been shown various times.

But the other thing that was shown during last recession, is that even though the economy stagnated and there were spending issues with the federal budget, majority of Russian's were still spending money like crazy. The other thing that was shown, was that banks were not being trusted anymore and many people were putting their investments into things like Pawnshops, and pawnshops were becoming some sort of banking sector in itself, where owners of pawnshops were investing in other businesses.  I watched that on RT.  Was kind of interesting.

Now mind you, I know you live in Russia FP, so I am not saying how it is in your country, far from it. What I am saying is what I see from over here in Canada on the media, talking to you and other Russian's (maybe a family member that still there) and just generally showing interest to find the information. But, information is always slanted in one way or another, and it is always best to read between the lines. But biggest issue to Russia's growth seems to stem specifically from corruption of both government and CEO's of industries, and lack of development for the small villages/areas.

Russia’s trade surplus declines more than 10% in 6 months
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/831066.html

MOSCOW, August 6 (Itar-Tass) - Russia’s trade surplus reduced by 10.5% to $103.3 billion in January-June, the Federal Customs Service said on Tuesday.

Russia’s trade surplus with non-CIS countries equaled $90.5 billion, down by $7.4 billion and with CIS member-states - $12.8 billion, down by $4.6 billion.

Over this period Russia’s foreign trade declined by 0.5% to $404.6 billion equaling $351 billion with non-CIS countries, and $53.6 billion with CIS member-states.

In January-June, Russia’s export decreased by 2.7% to $253.9 billion. Over this period non-CIS states accounted for 86.9% of Russia’s export and CIS member-states - for 13.1%.

Russia’s import increased by 3.4% to $150.7 billion yer-on-year. Over this period non-CIS states accounted for 86.5% of Russia’s import and CIS member-states - for 13.5%.

Austin wrote:Russia’s trade surplus declines more than 10% in 6 months
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/831066.html

MOSCOW, August 6 (Itar-Tass) - Russia’s trade surplus reduced by 10.5% to $103.3 billion in January-June, the Federal Customs Service said on Tuesday.

Russia’s trade surplus with non-CIS countries equaled $90.5 billion, down by $7.4 billion and with CIS member-states - $12.8 billion, down by $4.6 billion.

Over this period Russia’s foreign trade declined by 0.5% to $404.6 billion equaling $351 billion with non-CIS countries, and $53.6 billion with CIS member-states.

In January-June, Russia’s export decreased by 2.7% to $253.9 billion. Over this period non-CIS states accounted for 86.9% of Russia’s export and CIS member-states - for 13.1%.

Russia’s import increased by 3.4% to $150.7 billion yer-on-year. Over this period non-CIS states accounted for 86.5% of Russia’s import and CIS member-states - for 13.5%.

Imports are higher as more people have more money to spend.  Exports are lower, well, because we all know what is happening with Europe.  Real big trading partner seems to be with China in terms of export for Russia.  As for the post soviet countries, many of them can barely afford...anything.

Also noticed that the trade surplus is still in the positive? They never mention that. Glass is half empty

If politics was not an issue, Russia could circumvent the issue with Europe to US, as US economy isn't nearly in dire straits like EU's is.  But then again.....

If everyone is certain though that Russias economy is collapsing, I am fine with that.  But truth be told, we will find out in september to december.  I guess I am just too optimistic.

flamming_python wrote:http://www.euronews.com/2013/08/05/russian-economic-growth-worrisome/

Russian economic growth ‘worrisome’

More indications that Russia’s economy has stalled have come from the latest business surveys there.

Activity in the country’s services sector shrank at the fastest pace in three years in July.

The services index has now fallen for eight of the past nine months.

In July, employment in the services sector fell for the first time since October 2010.

Only the transport/storage sector and hotels/ restaurants saw new business grow.

This comes only a few days after an equivalent index for manufacturing also showed the worst reading for several years.

HSBC, which carried out the surveys, called them, “ very worrisome”.

“In essence, it appears that the Russian economy has lost its growth engines, with neither manufacturing nor services being able to sustain overall economic growth alone anymore,” said Alexander Morozov, chief economist for Russia and CIS at HSBC.

Services account for around 60 percent of Russia’s economy, including public services not included in the survey.

I am not discounting this, but I don't see much for links from that site. At that, not much for numbers either. But the last comment is true: “In essence, it appears that the Russian economy has lost its growth engines, with neither manufacturing nor services being able to sustain overall economic growth alone anymore,”, as Russia was growing huge in the industrial sector, especially manufacturing, making them almost second to Germany.

Money officials returned to Russia

The head of VTB 24 Mikhail Zadornov announced that in the first half of the year the bank attracted a record amount of funds of individuals - 163.6 billion rubles. For the six months of 2013 the volume retail deposits grew by 20%, to 982 billion rubles. In comparison, for the full year 2012 the Bank attracted from private clients 147 billion rubles.
As explained Zadornov, the bank increased its deposit base by the money of officials who are ordered to close the accounts abroad, as well as funds transferred from the Bank of Cyprus. Recall, according to the law, which was signed in May by President of the Russian Federation, from August 7, officials and civil servants can not hold accounts in foreign banks.
"Basically, it's VIP-clients - said Zadornov. - Let's see how this one-time action or trend." The banker declined to specify what proportion of inflows individuals have given public officials, but noted that as a result of bringing the proportion of VIP-clients among investors has exceeded 28%.

Am I the only one that knows how to post positive news?

Well the good news is Export is in Surplus even though it 10 % lesser than previous year but its still 100 billion Surplus this half year.

Last year Russia made $183 Billion in export surplus any idea what they did with this money ?

Also I think it would be a good idea to devaluate Rouble to 35-36 per USD as that would make Russias export competitive Globally.

Austin wrote:Well the good news is Export is in Surplus even though it 10 % lesser than previous year but its still 100 billion Surplus this half year.

Last year Russia made $183 Billion in export surplus any idea what they did with this money ?

Also I think it would be a good idea to devaluate Rouble to 35-36 per USD as that would make Russias export competitive Globally.

The Rouble is already 30 some odd to the USD. Devaluing it any more will just up the inflation, which is already around 5 - 6%, which is pretty high (which is what not helping people, as prices of goods are expensive).

What gets me though, is why Russian's are paying about the same as us westerners for things like milk, food and utilities, when they produce all of that in Russia, at cheaper prices. Someone is obviously making a massive profit.