BOFIT Weekly Review 2015/41
Russian domestic demand down over 10 %
First-half data on demand-side GDP components confirm the view that private consumption contracted nearly 10 % y-o-y and that fixed investment slid by 8 %. Moreover, similar to the 2009 recession, a reduction in inventories strongly curbed both domestic output and import volumes; the import volume was down 30 % y-o-y in the second quarter. The drop in demand was also reflected in wholesale, which saw sales volumes drop 10 % in January-August.