Russian Economy General News: #12

lancelot wrote:It takes a decade because there is no program to produce nuclear power plants in large numbers. So economies of scale never happen.
If you look at the rollout of nuclear power in the 1970s it is possible to build a nuclear power plant in 5 years.
The South Koreans built the Shin-Wolsong-1 reactor in 5 years not that long ago. Another reason for modern nuclear reactors like EPR taking so damn long to build is their complexity and huge size.

GarryB wrote:
That is half the problem... people want big heavy SUV vehicles instead of small compact cars so of course they need bigger engines to move the bigger heavier vehicles around which burns more fuel.

GarryB wrote:My brother has a hybrid which he has owned for about a year and he said he has filled the fuel tank about twice. Most of the time he spends in electric drive and really only uses the fuel powered engine on long trips or if he forgets to charge the car overnight.
He is very happy with his hybrid... I think it is either South Korean or Chinese... I don't remember the brand but it wasn't one I recognised.
Of course he lives in Thailand and it hardly ever gets below 25 degrees C.
I haven't been to Thailand but friends who have gone said there is a constant high altitude haze like thin white cloud layer... probably smog... you never see the stars... so I don't know how effective solar panels would be...
Lithium ion batteries are much much lighter than lead acid batteries, but still heavy because the level of power to run an electric motor to move a couple of tons down the motorway at 100km/h is a stiff task.

The huge irony of course is that many of the very first cars invented were electric but the investment in internal combustion engines essentially killed them off.

According to the results of 2021, the export of electricity from Russia increased 2.2 times compared to last year and reached 25 billion kWh.

The volume of sales increased as a result of lower air temperatures in winter 2021 and higher in summer 2021 (for air conditioners).

The largest consumers of Russian electricity are Finland (3.2 times growth), the Baltic countries (1.5 times growth), Georgia (2.9 times growth). By the way, in 2021 Ukraine resumed the purchase of electricity in Russia and Belarus.

According to the Federal Center "Agroexport" of the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia, as of December 12, 2021, the export of agro-industrial complex of Russia amounted to $ 33.5 billion or 61.1 million tons, which is an absolute record.

According to the forecasts of the Ministry of Agriculture, by the end of 2021, the export of agricultural products will amount to about $ 34-35 billion. In the next nine years, this figure may exceed $47 billion.

According to the Federal Customs Service, for 9 months of 2021, the export of vaccines, which includes supplies of the vaccine against the Sputnik V coronavirus, exceeded $ 1.2 billion, or 608.6 thousand vaccines in physical volume. This is an absolute record for the last ten years.

Savings of Russian citizens (individuals) in commercial banks by 01.12.2021 reached 36 trillion and 400 billion rubles, an increase of 11.3% or 3.7 trillion rubles compared to last year's November.

The international reserves of the Russian Federation increased by 0.7% from December 17 to 24 and reached a record $ 630.5 billion

PhSt wrote:Looks like Washington-based World Bank is carrying out Uncle Scam's smear campaign to destroy investor confidence in the Russian economy  

Russia’s GDP slowing down to 2.4% in 2022 — World Bank

WASHINGTON, January 11. /TASS/. Russia’s GDP will decelerate to 2.4% in 2022 and to 1.8% in 2023, the World Bank said in its Global Economic Prospects report.

"Growth in the Russian Federation - the region’s largest economy - is projected to moderate to 2.4% in 2022, as macroeconomic policy continues to tighten and domestic demand wanes, and to further decelerate to 1.8% in 2023, as industrial commodity prices edge down," the World Bank’s experts said.

"Output in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) is estimated to have expanded by 5.8% in 2021, reflecting a faster-than-expected rebound in domestic demand through most of the year. Firming activity in the euro area and higher commodity prices lifted export growth and remittance inflows, further bolstering the regional recovery," the World Bank noted. "Robust incoming data contributed to upward revisions of estimates for 2021 growth in about 90% of ECA economies. Recent high-frequency data, however, suggests that the latest surge of the pandemic will be disruptive, including through tighter domestic mobility restrictions and international travel bans," it added.

"New export orders have slipped, reflecting softening external demand and supply bottlenecks. Consumer confidence is waning owing to increasing COVID-19 cases, rising inflation, and policy uncertainty. Many of the region’s central banks are rapidly withdrawing monetary policy accommodation, prompted by a surge in prices that has pushed inflation above targets in nearly all inflation-targeting economies in the region," experts of the World Bank said.

"Risks to the baseline forecast for the region remain tilted to the downside. Further COVID-19 outbreaks may occur, especially in economies with low vaccination rates. Given tight global and euro area financial and trade linkages, a prolonged pandemic elsewhere could generate negative spillovers to ECA. The region’s energy exporters remain vulnerable to large swings in global commodity prices," the World Bank added.

https://tass.com/economy/1386451?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=smm_social_share

The volume of Russian non-commodity non-energy exports (NOE) in 2021 increased by 36%, to $191 billion, according to the Russian Export Center (REC, part of the VEB.RF group). In 2020, the indicator was equal to $141 billion (this estimate was adjusted due to data on the export of gold, which now does not apply to non-commodity exports). Exit full screen mode Expand to full screen   Broken down by goods and countries of export, the data is only given for 11 months - in total it is $ 170.5 billion. Metal products remain the largest category of supplies - 26% of all non-commodity non-energy exports. Taking into account the sharp rise in prices on the world market, these deliveries increased by 52% in monetary terms, from $29.2 billion to $44.4 billion (export of ferrous metals increased by 79%, non-ferrous — by 25.9%). According to the World Bank, prices for iron ore last year were on average 49% higher than a year earlier (the highest since 2011), for aluminum - 45% higher (the highest since 2008). In second place in terms of the amount of deliveries are chemical products ($33.3 billion, 19.5% of the NOE). Year on year, the indicator increased by 53.9%, including fertilizers by 70.8%, plastics by 61%. Engineering products are in third place - their exports increased by 31.3% over the year, to $31.3 billion (18.3% of NOE). Deliveries of power and electrical equipment increased by 39.9% (up to $6.4 billion), automotive equipment - by 38.8% (up to $3.2 billion), instruments and telecom equipment - by 48% (up to $3.4 billion) . The export of foodstuffs, which was previously inferior in volume only to the export of metal products, fell to fourth place. Over the year, it increased by 23.4%, to $34 billion (17.8% of the NOE), despite the fact that in general, food prices rose by an average of 28.1%. Supplies of oil and fat products grew the most (up 47.8% to $5.5 billion). Grain exports increased by 19.2% (up to $10.8 billion), fish exports - by 33.6%, to $6.3 billion. Year-on-year exports of timber and paper products increased by 43.2% (up to $14 billion, 8.2% of the NOE), precious stones and metals - by 15.3%, to $9 billion (5.3% of the total total NOE). For all other categories of exports, including glass, ceramics and building materials, non-food agricultural products, textiles, clothing and footwear, as well as other manufactured goods, supplies increased by more than 15%. wrote: