Russia’s Current Account Surplus Disappears

BOFIT also notes the ruble’s weakening. Here’s a picture of the CA through June.

Source: CEIC, accessed 8/21/2023.

This development is largely driven by the drop in the value of Russian exports:

(Click on image to enlarge)

Source: BOFIT, August 18, 2023.

Heli Simola at BOFIT has a good overview of current and prospective conditions facing Russia. One interesting passage (based on my GoogleTranslate output):

Russia’s goal has also been to alleviate the problems caused by lost imports by increasing domestic production. However, no investments have been made in the necessary production capacity. Total investments did increase in Russia last year as well, but the growth was mainly directed to other than import-substituting industrial production: transport infrastructure, construction and the real estate sector, and extractive production. On the other hand, in the automotive industry, investments collapsed and contracted clearly also in e.g. the manufacture of electrical equipment. The share of the machinery, equipment and automotive industry in total investment has halved over the past decade and was only one percent last year.

See also this earlier post on output available for nonmiitary use, here.


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Comments

Sarbelio Jaime 1 year ago Member's comment

It´s clear to me Russia is on plain war´s economy.

They produce goods but are goods for war, so they haven´t value.