SOVEREIGN ECONOMY: TOP EVENTS OF THE WEEK
07/04/2023, 07:00
Vladimir Putin stated that sanctions would last for a long time at the recent meeting of the Russian Federation’s Presidium. Putin claims that Russia was able to mobilize its resources and efforts to ensure stability. According to his words, Russia at the same time managed to ensure stability in the internal economy despite Western sanctions, which led to a sharp rupture in relations.
The Russian Ministry of Finance forecasts that the Russian budget in April will receive 113.6 billion rubles in oil and gas revenues. According to his data oil and gas revenues dropped by 46% from January to February, amounting to 947 billion rubles. This is associated with the aftermath of Western sanctions, which resulted in reduced production, lower prices for Urals crude oil , and reduced volume of gas exports.
The largest Russian banks have reported record profits for 2022. VTB reported profits of 756.8 billion rubles, according to Russian accounting standards, and 613 billion rubles, as per international standards. Excluding one-off income from the purchase of "VTB Open", VTB's profit amounted to 777 billion rubles, according to IFRS. In turn, Alfa-Bank received a net profit of 117.1 billion rubles for 2022. Last year, the financial organization reported about profits at the end of 14 years ago.
Russian grain producers collided with a boycott of Western partners. The largest international Agrotech simultaneously decided to stop buying Russian products as of July 1, 2023. The Russian Ministry of Agriculture officially informed the American Cargill, Swiss Viterra (affiliated with the international commodity trader Glencore) and Dutch Louis Dreyfus about this decision.
Ruble resumed its negative exchange rate dynamics. On Thursday, April 6, the euro exceeded the mark of 89 rubles for the first time since April 14, 2022; the dollar is trading above 81.2 rubles. The cost of the currency basket ($0.55 and EUR 0.45) increased by 1.55 rubles - up to 84.74 rubles. The deterioration of external trade balance indicators has a negative effect on the ruble, particularly a decrease in export receipts and an increase in import volumes.
