BOFIT Viikkokatsaus / BOFIT Weekly Review 2015/19
Retail sales last year shrank in 15 of Russia’s 83 administrative regions. Conditions have continued to degrade this year. In the first quarter of 2015, retail sales fell on-year in 73 regions, with drops greater than 10 % registered in 18 regions. The biggest drops were registered in Murmansk Oblast, the Republic of Tatarstan and Novosibirsk Oblast.
The slight first-quarter decrease in industrial output was not distributed evenly across Russia. Output fell most sharply in the Central Federal District, where the drop in output was 10 % y-o-y. The district includes the Moscow Oblast, which saw a drop of 23 %, the City of Moscow (down 15 %) and the Kaluga Oblast (down 7 %), famous for its car-manufacturing cluster. The biggest output drop in the Northwestern Federal District was seen in St. Petersburg (down over 7 %). In all other federal districts, output was essentially unchanged.
Change in retail sales volumes in federal districts and Russia’s biggest cities, % y-o-y, 2007–1Q2015
Source: Rosstat