Rosstat has published fresh data on the processes that are taking place in the Russian economy under Western sanctions. Thus, industrial production in March increased by 3% compared to the same period last year and by 9.9% compared to February 2022.
However, at the same time, 40.9 thousand cars were produced in our country in March, which is 72.1% less than in March 2021. But even if we compare not with last year's figures, but with February of this year, the fall is 62.2%. Quarterly results: in the first three months of 2022, 244,000 passenger cars were produced in the Russian Federation, which is 33.2% less than in January-March 2021.
The reason for the fall is the shutdown of almost all car factories located in Russia.
In addition, retail sales growth slowed sharply in March to 2.2% from 5.7% in February.
Also, according to Rosstat, the real disposable cash income of citizens of the Russian Federation in January-March 2022 decreased by 1.2%, despite the fact that over the previous three quarters the indicator gradually recovered to pre-pandemic levels. On a quarterly basis, real incomes in the first three months of this year decreased by 27.8%, which was primarily due to the devaluation of the ruble and accelerating inflation.
Economist Dmitry Prokofiev comments on this situation in his channel:
“If someone does not understand, production is still“ holding on ”, but the“ consumer economy ”has already gone down (the car is its most obvious symbol), retail too - there is nothing to sell and there is no one to buy, well, income was the first to react. As long as everything is in line with the boss's vision - people's incomes should fall faster than the economy..."