Central bank’s analysts: Russian economy expands in July–August

MOSCOW, Sep 8 (PRIME) – The Russian economy expanded slightly in July–August, analysts of the central bank’s research and forecasting department said in a report late on Wednesday.

“Economic dynamics remain uneven and unstable because of high uncertainty. Simultaneous impacts of mixed tendencies and factors can have different effects on individual companies within the same industry. Nevertheless, combination of their effect led to a slight expansion of business activity in the Russian economy in general in July–August. Economic contraction did not deepen,” the analysts said.

The business and individuals have positive expectations of the future, which improves business and consumer confidence.

Russia’s annual inflation should continue slowing down in the several coming months, but the impact of one-time dis-inflationary factors is already depleting. The impact of the ruble’s strengthening is almost gone, while consumer activity is rising as consumer lending supports that, and the impact of the budget on combined demand is also growing.

This is why the growth of consumer prices should speed up in the next few months. Double-digit growth of monetary aggregates coupled with expected economic fall in 2022 points to the risks of expanding monetary component of inflation and higher stable inflationary pressure, the central bank’s analysts said.

Opinions of the research and forecasting department may not coincide with the central bank’s official position.

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