The key factor in the strengthening of the real exchange rate of the ruble in the 2000s was the transformation based growth of Russia's economy (the Balassa-Samuelson effect) coupled with the improving foreign trade conditions. As can be concluded on the basis of data for Q4 2014, for the...

Due to the turmoil in the foreign exchange market, the Bank of Russia lifted on the 16th of December the key interest rate up to 17% p.a. in an effort to stop the ruble's rapid depreciation. In December 2014, the consumer price index stood at 2.6% (0.5% in December 2013 ), up 1.3 p.p. above the...

The taxation reform in the oil and oil-refining industries in 2014 – the ‘tax maneuver' – was designed to boost the performance of domestic oil refineries. In late 2015, the planned reduction of export duty was suspended in order to keep unchanged the volume of tax-generated revenues...

In June, the Russian Central Bank, for the first time since summer 2015, decided to reduce the key interest rate by 0.5 percentage points, to 10.5%. The decline in inflation expectations, further slowdown in inflation and stabilization of the external environment, together with the...

The state of Russia's oil sector is marked by a general deterioration of the oil extraction conditions owing to depletion of existing deposits in developed regions and significantly higher extraction costs at the new oil fields and tight oil deposits. In order to improve the situation,...

In Q1 2016, inflation slowed down both month-on-month and year-on-year, driven by further decline in internal demand amid a strengthening rouble, as well as due to the high base effect a year earlier. However, expectations for high inflation are still strong, which will stem decline in price...

Reduction of the deficit of the consolidated budgets of subjects of the Russian Federation in 2015 was due to not to the improvement of the financial state of the regions but a decrease of borrowing possibilities and contraction of financial assistance from the federal budget. That is why...

The BOP (Balance of Payments) statistics for Q1 2016 show considerable shrinkage of the current account surplus due to a decline in exports while imports saw their decline rate slow down. At the same time, the private sector saw capital outflow decrease strongly. As a result, even though the...

Russian oil sector has achieved maximum levels of production on and exports. Oil extraction is at the highest point since 1990 and oil exports are at the all-time maximum. Meanwhile, prospects for the development of the oil sector are determined by deterioration of the oil extraction conditions...

Over the period March 2015 – February 2016, the growth rate of prices declined to 8.1%, while the corresponding index for February 2015 – January 2016 amounted to 9.8%. As demonstrated by the results of a survey published by the Bank of Russia, in February the median inflation expectation...