Foreign trade - the most dynamic indicator of Russian economy in 2017

The Russian Federal Statistics Service (Rosstat) has published results of the social and economic development of Russia in 2017.

According to the statistics, industrial output last year grew by 1% only, while in 2016 the industrial output index was 1.3%. Dynamics of agricultural production decreased even more significantly: 2.4% in 2017 against 4.8% in 2016, although last year Russia set a historic record for the grain harvest.

The 1.2% growth of indicators in retail trade, showed for the first time in three last years, means that the most acute symptoms of the economic crisis for the population have been overcome. However, real incomes of the population continued falling, falling by an additional 1.7%, although in 2016 they decreased by 5.8%.

Investments in stock capital also showed signs of recovery. So far, Rosstat has calculated the data for the nine months of last year - plus 4.2% by the same period of the previous year. In 2016, investments for 9 months decreased by 0.6%.

Data on Russia's GDP so far submitted by Rosstat also refer to January-September 2017 - 65.815 trillion rubles, or 1.6% more than in the same period in 2016, when there was a decline in GDP by 0.4%.

The only key macroeconomic indicator of Rosstat, which demonstrated double-digit growth last year, was the foreign trade turnover, which amounted to $528.9 billion, or 25.1% more than in 2016. The trend towards the restoration of foreign trade was noticeable already in the first quarter of last year due to rising oil prices and the strengthening of the ruble. These two factors led, respectively, to an increase in the costs of Russia’s both exports and imports.