March’s cold weather affects business activity
The Bank of Russia revised its annual GDP growth estimate in the first quarter downward to
As investment weakened in March and Rosstat updated statistics on gross fixed capital formation, this indicator was adjusted downward by 1 pp to
Consumption kept recovering in March as real disposable income registered an uptick. That said, consumption growth remained moderate and in line with a gradual inflation increase to the 4% target.
Being caused by one-off factors, slower business activity in March failed to trigger a downward revision of the Bank of Russia’s 2018 economic growth forecast. Business activity is expected to go up in the forthcoming months and set off the March slowdown. High-frequency data-based estimates suggest that annual industrial production will show