Russian consumption and output declined in July

The volume of retail sales (seasonally adjusted) contracted further last month and was 5 % smaller than in July 2015. The decline from a year ago was slightly smaller than in the second quarter of this year. Household real disposable income also continued to fall, to a level 7 % below July 2015, even if real wages were up slightly. Fixed investment, for which only quarterly reporting is published after last year, declined roughly 4 % y-o-y in the second quarter. The drop was nearly 5 % in the first quarter.

Seasonally adjusted industrial output declined by almost 1 % from June to July. Most of the drop was due to a reversal in manufacturing output, which was down 1.5 % y-o-y. Output of extractive industries, in contrast, showed slightly higher on-year growth (1.8 %) compared to previous months. Most of the increase came from crude oil production, which was up 1.7 % y-o-y in July (1.3 % in 2Q2016). 

Russian industrial output 2015−2016

Source: Rosstat