The Russian Regions in January-July 2019 : A Mix of Growth, Stagnation and Slumpt

In January-July 2019, amid the upturn in industry driven mainly by resource-producing territories and sectors and weak growth in consumption the most serious problems were still the level of households' incomes and the volume of investments which fell in more than a half of regions. The housing development was getting out of the crisis, primarily, in large metropolitan areas and in the south of the country, while the recession continued in the Far East. Most regions saw growth in their budget revenues owing to an increase in profit tax revenues and transfers, which made it feasible to raise expenditures on the economy and social services. Advanced growth in expenditures on housing and public utilities was underpinned mainly by Moscow which spent a huge amount of funds on urban land improvement. The inequality between regions kept growing, particularly, as regards investments, wages and budget revenues