Austerity : A Trend Across Russia's Regions

The year of 2015 was marked by a few troublesome trends in the crisis unfolding in Russia's regions. The overwhelming majority of Russia's territories ran a budget deficit while regional and municipal debts were piling up. A new trend towards drastic shrinking of consumption took hold. Furthermore, investment continued to decline for three consecutive years. On the other hand, the industrial sector downturn was moderate and geographically localized, and the unemployment rate continued to grow at slowest pace. The outlook for 2016 is negative: the adverse trends are expected to worsen