Muted customer demand and ongoing price pressures noted. Economic slowdown in Europe a headache for exporters.
The S&P Russian manufacturing PMI was back in positive territory in May, posting an expansion of 50.8, up from 48.2 in April as the chart shows. Any number above the no-change 50 indicates an expansion.
Tight labour market is expected to give ever stronger momentum to wage demands to compensate for inflation.
Central bank predicts GDP growth will slow considerably this year, with economic activity even slightly contracting year on year in the second half.
The cumulated profits of the three largest banks in Romania — Banca Transilvania, BCR and BRD — exceeded RON1bln in Q1.
Households have cashed part of their term deposits, as the deposit interest rates lag well behind inflation, but the money migrated to foreign currency.
The war in Ukraine and a chain of unusual weather events may combine to create a global food catastrophe. New data shows which countries are the biggest agricultural exporters. These agricultural superpowers must work together to mitigate the crisis.
Russia’s external debt is 15% of GDP – one of the lowest levels in the world – and with the concurrent relentless rise in hard currency reserves had created a net surplus position of some $153bn. Not any more.
Russians' attitudes towards the US have nose-dived to their second worst level on record.
The Central Bank of Russia held an unplanned ahead-of-schedule policy meeting on May 26, at which the board of the regulator slashed the key interest rate by 300 basis points from 14% to 11%.
Albania’s electricity generation fell in Q1, forcing the country to increase imports more than sevenfold at a time when prices are soaring.
Growth will be driven by tourism and construction, but slowed by sharply rising prices – inflation has already exceeded the central bank’s 3% target.
Polish retail sales grew 19% y/y at constant prices in April, the growth rate nearly doubling versus a gain of 9.6% y/y the preceding month.
Industrial output expanded 13% y/y in constant prices in April, after growing 17.3% y/y the preceding month.
Last year the country’s industry rallied driven by robust domestic demand and leapt up by 12.4% — but this year the growth rate is likely to slow down close to a standstill.
Unemployment down from 6.67% in March to 6.54% in April.
The inflation expectations of the Russian population fell 6pp in March to 12.5%, as consumers feel the relief of the rapid stabilisation of the economy thanks to the fast action of the Central Bank of Russia.
Russia’s gross international reserves (GIR) held by the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) have fallen from $629.4bn on February 25 to $585.7bn as of May 13, a fall of $43.7bn according to the latest data released by the regulator.
The industrial price inflation in April was the second-highest since last November when Gazprom began charging much higher prices under a new contract.