In late February 2022, the EU countries and the USA put in place sanctions against the Bank of Russia, which imply freezing of international reserve assets. As a result, about 50% of the reserves ($300 bn of the $630 bn available as of February 1, 2022) were affected by the sanctions.Countries...

The importance of human capital in regional economic competitiveness is increasingly apparent. However, structural changes, fragmentation, the instability of funding, and other factors have led to challenges for workforce development providers as well as workforce development systems. This...

In 2021, the profit of the banking sector hit a record Rb2.4 trillion. The achievement of this high indicator was influenced by several factors: the aggressive banks’ policy in the credit market; reduction of provisioning costs due to a low share of overdue loans; growth of commission income...

In January-November 2021, retail bank deposits increased slightly and their share in bank liabilities decreased. The factors of the slowdown were: the outflow of funds into the purchase of real estate due to the availability of mortgages; attractive conditions on the stock market; the growth of...

In 2021, according to preliminary estimates, the current account balance was more than three times higher than the previous year. In particular, the positive balance of Russia’s trade balance has increased significantly and reached record values due to the outstripping growth in the value of...

Year 2021 saw extractive industries’ growth on the back of a pickup in demand for power-generating coal and natural gas on the part of European and Asian countries, as well as ebbing restrictions related to the OPRC+ agreement (owing to higher quotas on daily oil production volumes in member...

On February 11, the Bank of Russia’s key rate was increased by 1 p.p. to 9.5% per annum. This is its highest value since May 2017. The decision was adopted in response to the ongoing inflation acceleration that resulted from an actively expanding aggregate demand, shortage of labor resources,...

The economic recovery and the expected rise in interest rates are stimulating demand for corporate loans. The quality of the aggregate portfolio of corporate loans is improving: the average level of past-due debt is gradually decreasing; the level of profitability is moving up. At the same time,...