Regional Economy report: economic activity rises fast in most macro-regions
In December 2021—January 2022, companies in various sectors continued investments to scale up their production, using both borrowings and substantial profit earned over the previous year. Demand and prices for core Russian exports remained high.
Growing domestic and external demand supported output and investment activity in oil production and refining, metallurgy, fertiliser production, the wood and food industries. More details are available in the report Regional Economy: Commentaries by Bank of Russia Main Branches.
Multiple main branches of the Bank of Russia note a steady increase in consumer expenses driven by both higher wages and retail lending. As inflation expectations stay high, households still prefer not to make savings. Furthermore, the authors of the report emphasise that monetary conditions tightened more significantly in January 2022.
The new issue of the report covers such special topics as producer prices for food, changes in the labour market during the pandemic period, as well as transitory inflation factors in the markets of certain goods.