The reporting year This section is based on data of the Russian Ministry of Economic Development: http://economy.gov.ru. saw a decline in key macroeconomic indicators, which intensified after economic sanctions imposed against Russia by the European Union, the United States and a number of other countries.
According to estimates by the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat), Russia’s GDP fell 3.7% in 2015.
In 2015, real household disposable incomes, a key macroeconomic indicator reflecting the population’s purchasing power, continued to decline. In 2015, the population’s real disposable incomes were 96.0% of the 2014 levels.
The decline in real disposable incomes was mainly due to corporate downsizing. E.g., while in January 2015, the numbers of officially registered unemployed were at 99.2% of the 2014 level, in December 2015, this level grew to 113.3%. At the end of 2015, the share of the unemployed among the economically active population was 5.6% (+7.7% year-on-year).
In 2015, inflation was up 12.9% year-on-year on average.
Rosstat estimates that in 2015 investments in fixed assets slowed down 8.4% year-on-year. As before, investment activity in the country is mainly constrained by lower consumer demand caused by falling disposable incomes of households.