Less Russians move abroad

Less Russians move abroad

The Russian Migration Service has registered a sharp decline in the number of Russians moving abroad. At the same time, the number of Russians resettling inside Russia is increasing.

-We have registered a 20 percent decrease in the number of Russian moving abroad, Deputy Head of the Migration Service Yekaterina Yerova told journalists, RIA Novosti reports.

At the same time, the number of Russians moving to other places in the country is on the increase. Ten percent more people now change place of residence in Russia, Ms Yegorova confirmed.

The higher level of domestic migration is believed to follow the growing unemployment in the country with more people moving to find jobs.

National Economic Trends

MOSCOW, August 17 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia’s industrial production decreased by 14.2 percent in the first seven months of the current year as compared to the same period of 2008, the Prime Tass economic news agency said on Monday, quoting a report on the Federal State Statistics Service.

In July 2009, the country’s industrial output dropped by 10.8 percent as compared to last July, and went up by 4.7 percent as against this June, the economic news agency said.

In January-July 2009, Russia’s mining production shrank by 3.1 percent, Prime Tass said, adding that the production in the processing industries went down by 20.3 percent.

In addition, the country’s production and distribution of electricity, gas and water decreased by 5.9 percent this January-July, as compared to the same period of 2008, Prime Tass cited the statistical report.

In the reporting period, Russia’s oil and gas condensate production increased by 0.3 percent to make up 284 million tonnes, Prime Tass said.

In the period under review, gas production dropped by 20.2 percent to 315 billion cubic metres and coal output contracted by 14.1 percent to 50.7 million tonnes, the economic news agency said.

In January-July 2009, production of iron ore decreased by 19.5 percent as compared to the same period of 2008, and made up 50.7 million tonnes, Prime Tass said.

In the first seven months of the year, Russia’s electricity production went down by 6.2 percent to 567 billion kilowatt-hours, and production of thermal power decreased by 1.7 percent to 802 million Gcal, the economic news agency quoted the State Statistics Service’s report.

Slowdown in Industrial Output Eases

The State Statistics Service said Monday that the slump in industrial production eased for a second month in July after the Central Bank cut interest rates five times since April.

Output decreased an annual 10.8 percent, falling for the ninth consecutive month, compared with a drop of 12.1 percent in June.

The economy of the world’s biggest energy exporter contracted the most on record last quarter, shrinking an annual 10.9 percent.

Wage arrears declined 9.9 percent to 6.5 billion rubles ($201.8 million) in July.

While the fall in wage arrears is a “good tendency,” it may not be that indicative of employment conditions, said Sergei Guriyev, rector at the New Economic School.

“Many enterprises cut their staff, and therefore, wage funds are being cut,” Guriyev said.

(MT, Bloomberg)

Russian unemployment still falling

http://www.businessneweurope.eu/dispatch_text9540

bne
August 18, 2009

It is not exactly good news, but Russia's macroeconomic results continue to improve slowly. In the last bit of good news the Healthcare and Social Development Ministry said the number of officially unemployed was down by 0.4% in the week to August 12, reports Prime Tass.

This is actually a much more encouraging result than it seems to be and comes on top of a raft of other results that strongly suggest the Russian economy is at or has already passed bottom. In a crash unemployment spikes as companies cut costs, but in the post crash period unemployment takes a lot longer to fall than production and profits take to recovery.

The reason is obvious: companies are slow to increase their wage bill as they try to rebuild profits and the surviving workers are usually happy to work more for less after passing through the scare of joblessness that crashes bring.

In other new Europe countries to the west of Russia, governments are expecting a slower recovery but the relatively quick bounce back in Russia's unemployment rates suggest, like the stock market, the joblessness rates have overshot and demand is stronger than was expected so companies are hiring a bit more than would be expected. There is a chance that the eastern Europe economies will do a "first in, first out" style of recovery, which is still a long way from a V shape recovery, but certain could surprise on the upside.

In related news, the level of total overdue wages was down nearly 10% to RUB6.5bn as of August 1, reports Rosstat. This is also encouraging as companies basically froze payments as the crisis struck and the reduction of overdue pay suggests that money is beginning to flow again as companies start to pay off their debts.

Most of the payments were made by state organs which have been suffering from funding problems, but have received state help recently.

Wage arrears caused by delays in federal government financing decreased 38.5% in July to 93 million rubles as of August 1, while wage arrears caused by delays in regional government financing decreased 56.6% to 34 million rubles, and wage arrears caused by delays in municipal government financing decreased 14.8% to 33 million rubles, the statistics service said, reports Interfax.

Russia’s Ruble Climbs Against Dollar, Euro as Oil Price Rises

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601095&sid=aY1RLayN29Ow

By Alex Nicholson

Aug. 18 (Bloomberg) -- The ruble strengthened against the dollar and euro as crude oil advanced.

Russia’s currency gained 1.2 percent to 31.8516 per dollar at 10:43 a.m. in Moscow. The ruble fell 2 percent yesterday. The ruble increased 0.8 percent to 45.0171 per euro.

The movements against the dollar and the euro left the ruble up 0.8 percent at 37.8759 against the central bank’s target currency basket, which is used to manage swings that hurt Russian exporters.

Crude oil for September delivery rose 29 cents to $67.04 a barrel.

The basket is calculated by multiplying the dollar’s rate to the ruble by 0.55, the euro to ruble rate by 0.45, then adding them together. The ruble remains within the 26 to 41 band the central bank pledged Jan. 22 to defend.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Nicholson in Moscow at anicholson6@bloomberg.net.