The Russian economy (catch all)

[OUTLAW 09]

Morgan Stanley predicts 5.6% drop in Ru GDP 2015
http://tass.ru/en/economy/774388 …

The oil crash has wiped $393 billion off energy company balance sheets
http://bloom.bg/1yKuqno

[OUTLAW 09]

Morgan Stanley has a rather scary prediction for the Russian economy - it's doomed #Russia http://www.businessinsider.com/morga...-doomed-2015-1 …

Putin Fingerprints Seen All Over Surprise Interest-Rate Reversal http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...-over-politics …

Why Russia’s grip on Europe’s gas markets is weakening. Russia losing its levers one by one. http://on.wsj.com/1BvJAiu pic.twitter.com/n2LMecmc1t

[OUTLAW 09]

Russian Nationalist Demands Soviet Exchange Rates to Solve Ruble Crisis. http://www.themoscowtimes.com/busine...is/515168.html … pic.twitter.com/f7fwwQI9dz

Russian businesses in great trouble, $77 billion foreign corporate debt to pay in 2015. http://www.businessinsider.com/heres...trouble-2015-1 … pic.twitter.com/5Yj2B1UG1I

As crisis increases, vodka prices decrease. “@KermlinRussia: Сынок, теперь ты будешь больше пить: pic.twitter.com/DfVCOKx84i

[OUTLAW 09]

Sberbank starts limiting customer withdrawals from their own accounts.

Today other Russian banks started following the example from Sberbank.


Russische Sberbank limitiert Bargeldauszahlungen. Andere wollen folgen.

[OUTLAW 09]

#Ruble falls again at #Moscow Exchange: 1USD=68.79RUB, 1EUR=78.12RUB http://zloy-odessit.livejournal.com/1116575.html pic.twitter.com/K19uRNR42b

[Firn]

Krugman adds a fresh macro angle to the debate:

But let’s not talk about Latin America. Instead, let’s talk about Russia. Putin’s thrashing, his evident decision to reject advice from economists who tell him anything he doesn’t want to hear, feel very familiar to me and I’m sure many others who’ve followed Latin America over the decades. Basically, it sounds a lot like good old-fashioned macroeconomic populism.

...

So Putin seems to have brought something new, or at least formerly rare, into the world of economic policy: macroeconomic cronyism, an effort to suspend the laws on economics on behalf, not of the broad populace, but a tiny group of well connected malefactors of great wealth. Innovation!

Obviously the conyism is an old story, but it's mix is a new take on an old fallacy. Perhaps the worst luck for the Russian citzien was that Putin was so lucky with the high commodity prices. Those were of course a massive boost for the Russian economy and helped the country and it's citizens to get high growth and economic stability but it allowed the leader to get credit for poor personal performance and to take the Russian economy far along a dangerous path into the wrong direction...

[Firn]

Number of Western Foreigners in Russia Drops by Half a Million.

Note in includes tourists, still it is a very steep drop by any standards.

The total number of Western foreigners in Russia, including tourists, reportedly dropped in January by about half a million year-on-year amid deepening political tensions and a deteriorating domestic economy.

There were 1.23 million Westerners in the country last month, down from 1.73 million in the same month last year, news agency RBC reported Wednesday, citing the Federal Migration Service.

Western workers in Russia have been overall important cogs in the Russian economy, especially with it's interactions with Western companies. For the Russian demographics more important is the 70% crash in the number of non-Western migrant workers. Their immigration has been one of the two big reasons for the slight Russian population growth and have greatly enlarged the labour pool especially for the lower bracket of the job market.