Economics

Why does a central bank need a Telegram channel, what makes the Russian economic information space special, how are inflation expectations managed, does AI help the Bank of Russia write press releases – these are key points from the discussion hosted by New Economic School.

An import reduction has a more than proportionate impact on Russia’s industrial output and exports. Over one year, a 1% decrease in imports as a share of production costs across industries leads to a more than 2% output reduction and an even more significant decline in exports.

The macroeconomic situation is the overall performance of the country’s regional economies. Experts at the Bank of Russia’s Financial Congress assessed which regions are benefiting and which are losing out as a result of the ongoing transformation and structural changes.

Modern technology and big data on retail sales enable more accurate and faster measurement of inflation. We are developing a methodology for calculating a price index based on data from online receipts: in the future, it will make it possible to track inflation in near real time.

Human capital is one of the key factors of economic growth, but there are few quantitative estimates of its contribution to the Russian economy. New estimates show that its contribution peaked in the second half of the 2000s and had almost disappeared by the end of the 2010s.

In a geographically large economy, different regions can respond differently to the same events. Nowcasting used for data across Russia revealed these differences as well as their dependence on the level of development and the sectoral specialisation of the regions.

Europe’s dependence on Russian supplied gas has drastically reduced. Nevertheless, several EU member states retain an interest in continued Russian exports given the steep costs of switching to alternative supplies. 

The number of educated and employed women in Russia is high by world standards. Russia is among the world leaders for the share of families with a woman as the main breadwinner. The weak role in governance and large pay gap are paradoxical, but have an institutional explanation.