Russia’s economy has been isolated, its billionaires have been sanctioned and hundreds of foreign companies have either left the country or cut back on operations there.
And yet the Russian economy has emerged surprisingly resilient; its currency has bounced back and this week found a way to avoid defaulting on its foreign debt.
“All things considered, it’s holding up better than initially expected,” said Art Woo, a senior economist with the Bank of Montreal.
The Russian economy is still projected to fall into a recession later this year, Woo said. But so far, it has managed to blunt the harshest economic consequences of the Western sanctions, brought in amid the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Two women walk past a currency exchange office, displaying the exchange rates of the U.S. dollar and euro against Russian rubles in Moscow on April 1. (The Associated Press)
The Russian ruble collapsed by 30 per cent in late February when Western sanctions were first introduced. A month later, U.S. President Joe Biden said the sanctions were working and that the Russian economy was on track to be cut in half.
“As a result of our unprecedented sanctions, the ruble was almost immediately reduced to rubble,” tweeted Biden in March.
Protecting the ruble
But since then, the value of the currency has almost doubled — largely the result of some deft moves from the country’s central bank as it took quick steps to bolster the ruble.
The Central Bank of the Russian Federation severely restricted the ability of Russian citizens to sell rubles and buy foreign currencies. It has demanded that foreign countries pay for Russian energy products in rubles. And it’s forcing Russian companies still exporting to sell 80 per cent of their foreign-currency revenues and buy rubles instead.
Customers queue at a currency exchange kiosk in Moscow on Feb. 28, just days after Russia invaded Ukraine. The Bank of Russia acted quickly to shield the nation’s $1.5-trillion economy from sweeping sanctions that hit key banks and pushed the ruble to a record low. The currency has since rebounded, thanks to a range of economic measures. (Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg)
Experts say that has essentially created an artificial demand for the currency, which has boosted its value and kept a floor under the ruble. As the Wall Street Journal put it, the ruble is in “a central-bank-induced coma.”
Meanwhile, the Russian job market has remained solid — and the state has shown its willingness to step in to keep the domestic economy functioning, Woo said.
“We suspect that the government will rely on Soviet‐era tactics (when unemployment was effectively outlawed) and encourage employers to lower salaries/reduce working hours instead of cutting head count,” he told CBC News in an email.
A tanker loads its cargo of liquefied natural gas from the Sakhalin-2 project in the port of Prigorodnoye, Russia, on Oct. 29, 2021. Russia supplies about 40 per cent of Europe’s natural gas and about 25 per cent of its oil, which means the European Union has been hesitant to impose sanctions on Russian energy exports. (The Associated Press)
Energy exports in the crosshairs
At the heart of that strength is Russia’s much vaunted oil and gas exports. Since the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, oil and gas prices have surged.
“The sky-high fossil fuel prices and continued imports into Europe have provided the Kremlin with a major windfall and undermined the effect of economic sanctions,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst with the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
That kind of money buys an awful lot of wiggle room. And combined with the moves by its central bank, the Russian economy is holding its own.
But now the European Union is threatening to cut off some energy exports as well, with possible sanctions on Russian oil on the table and set to be discussed in a meeting Wednesday.
Russia supplies about 40 per cent of the EU’s natural gas and about 25 per cent of its oil.
“Our goal is simple,” Charles Michel, the head of the European Council, said this week. “We must break the Russian war machine. And I am confident that the council will imminently impose further sanctions, notably on Russian oil.”
The mere idea of cutting off Russian energy exports was nearly unimaginable when the conflict began. But as the war dragged on, pressure grew on governments to take more action.
People walk past wrecks of military vehicles in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 30. The conflict has dragged on for 10 weeks now. (Emilio Morenatti/The Associated Press)
“The politics became so toxic,” said Rory Johnston, managing director and market economist at the Toronto-based Price Street Inc. “Russia’s activities and the human rights abuses in Ukraine [were] so offensive that governments of the world really didn’t have a choice.”
If Europe follows through on the threat and bans Russian oil and gas, that would severely limit Russia’s ability to blunt the blow of Western sanctions.
Economic trouble ahead
And it comes as its central bank was already warning that the country was headed for the worst economic downturn it has seen in decades.
“The sanctions imposed against Russia affected the situation in the financial sector, spurred the demand for foreign currencies, and caused fire sales of financial assets, a cash outflow from banks and surging demand for goods,” said Elvira Nabiullina in prepared remarks first published in English on Friday.
In this handout photo, Russian Central Bank Chief Elvira Nabiullina delivers her speech at the State Duma in Moscow on April 21. (The Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Press Service via AP)
For the second time in less than a month, Nabiullina slashed the country’s interest rates by three percentage points. She further warned consumer prices could soar by as much as 23 per cent this year.
As the sanctions drag on, she said, exporters and producers will have to seek out new partners and new markets.
“Currently, this problem might be not as acute because the economy still has inventories, but we can see that the sanctions are being tightened almost every day,” she said in a speech at a joint meeting of the State Duma last month.
The yacht Amore Vero is shown docked in the Mediterranean resort of La Ciotat, France, on March 3. French authorities seized the yacht, linked to Igor Sechin, a Putin ally who runs Russian oil giant Rosneft, as part of EU sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. (Bishr Eltoni/The Associated Press)
The forecast from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is even more dire.
“The baseline forecast is for a sharp contraction in 2022, with GDP falling by about 8.5 per cent, and a further decline of about 2.3 per cent in 2023,” the IMF wrote in its global forecast.
The hardest part in assessing the state of the Russian economy is accounting for all the unknowns; even the best experts don’t know how the war will progress or how European countries will respond.
Measuring that uncertainty is the unenviable task of economists like Doug Hostland, associate vice-president at TD Economics.
“Because of the unprecedented nature of what’s happening, we’re really beyond our realm as economists to predict,” he said.
Hostland wrote a research paper into the impact of the potential that Russia may default on its debt. “Foreign investors hold only around $20 billion in Eurobonds issued by the Russian government which is small,” he wrote.
But the threat of a default was a mere distraction from the real concern, Hostland said, which is a broader European banning of Russia’s oil and gas.
“That’s the main event,” he said. “That’s what financial markets and the entire geopolitical perspective is: what is Europe going to do next?”
FREDERICTON – New Brunswick‘s finance minister says the province recorded a surplus of $500.8 million for the fiscal year that ended in March.
Ernie Steeves says the amount — more than 10 times higher than the province’s original $40.3-million budget projection for the 2023-24 fiscal year — was largely the result of a strong economy and population growth.
The report of a big surplus comes as the province prepares for an election campaign, which will officially start on Thursday and end with a vote on Oct. 21.
Steeves says growth of the surplus was fed by revenue from the Harmonized Sales Tax and federal money, especially for health-care funding.
Progressive Conservative Premier Blaine Higgs has promised to reduce the HST by two percentage points to 13 per cent if the party is elected to govern next month.
Meanwhile, the province’s net debt, according to the audited consolidated financial statements, has dropped from $12.3 billion in 2022-23 to $11.8 billion in the most recent fiscal year.
Liberal critic René Legacy says having a stronger balance sheet does not eliminate issues in health care, housing and education.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says the government is making some changes to mortgage rules to help more Canadians to purchase their first home.
She says the changes will come into force in December and better reflect the housing market.
The price cap for insured mortgages will be boosted for the first time since 2012, moving to $1.5 million from $1 million, to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
On Aug. 1 eligibility for the 30-year amortization was changed to include first-time buyers purchasing a newly-built home.
Justice Minister Arif Virani is also releasing drafts for a bill of rights for renters as well as one for homebuyers, both of which the government promised five months ago.
Virani says the government intends to work with provinces to prevent practices like renovictions, where landowners evict tenants and make minimal renovations and then seek higher rents.
The government touts today’s announced measures as the “boldest mortgage reforms in decades,” and it comes after a year of criticism over high housing costs.
The Liberals have been slumping in the polls for months, including among younger adults who say not being able to afford a house is one of their key concerns.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales rose 1.4 per cent to $71 billion in July, helped by higher sales in the petroleum and coal and chemical product subsectors.
The increase followed a 1.7 per cent decrease in June.
The agency says sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector gained 6.7 per cent to total $8.6 billion in July as most refineries sold more, helped by higher prices and demand.
Chemical product sales rose 5.3 per cent to $5.6 billion in July, boosted by increased sales of pharmaceutical and medicine products.
Sales of wood products fell 4.8 per cent for the month to $2.9 billion, the lowest level since May 2023.
In constant dollar terms, overall manufacturing sales rose 0.9 per cent in July.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
