The worst global downturn since the Great Depression has caused ballooning budget deficits in most nations, as tax revenues collapse and governments bail out financial institutions and attempt countercyclical fiscal policy. With notable exceptions, most economists accept the desirability of...

During the Soviet period, Russia’s 1913 statistics were used as a reference point against which the achievements of the planned-administrative economy of the USSR were evaluated. However, the demise of the Soviet system has made this approach to the economic history of Russia rather obsolete...

In August, the consumer price index was the lowest in the current year and amounted to 0.1% (against 0.2% decline in August 2011). The main inflation curbing factor was the inflation decline in food prices (-0.5%). The second phase of regulated tariffs indexation urged the acceleration of...

The effect of September indexation of housing and public utilities prices began to subside, leading to a slowdown of inflation in October: as per the month results, the CPI equaled the same period of the last year and amounted to 0.5%. In November, the growth rate of consumer prices remained...

In September the growth rate of food prices, higher cost of fuel, as well as a new stage of regulated tariffs indexing have provoked acceleration of consumer price inflation: as per the month results, CPI amounted to 0.6% (vs.0% in September 2011). Within three weeks of October, there was no...

In January 2013 the seasonal growth in prices for fruit and vegetables, as well as the planned in¬crease in excise duties have contributed to inflation by two-fold, as compared with December 2012: CPI for the month made 1%. As a result, the inflation rate in annual terms has reached 7.1%. In...

In December the pre-Christmas growth in foodstuffs prices and in transport tariffs provoked acceleration of inflation, which made 0.5% within the month (against 0.4% in December 2011). As a result, by the end of 2012 the inflation rate made 6.6%, having matched the recent official forecast of...

In mid-April 2013, the Secretariat of the World Trade Organization (WTO) published an annual analytical review on the basis of the results of development of the international trade in 2012 and the prospects of its development in 2013. The above document includes as well the initial statistical...

In February 2013 the consumer price index made 0.6% (as compared with 0.4% in February 2012), which is less than in January of the current year by 0.4 p.p. In March infl ation has also increased: by the results of 18 days of the month, the CPI made 0.3%. As a result, the infl ation rate in...

Significant slowdown in the growth rate in prices for non-food goods and maintained prices for commercial services at the level of the preceding month resulted in the fact, that the baseline inflation slowed down from 0.5 % per month in October to 0.3% in November (against 0.4% in November...