Belousov outlined the timing of the maximum fall in investment in Russia

The peak of the investment decline in Russia will be in the first half of 2023, and the peak in terms of consumption has been passed or is passing now, declared First Deputy Prime Minister Andrey Belousov.

Belousov referred to the latest calculations of the Ministry of Economic Development, which show that in terms of consumption, the peak of the decline in Russia has passed or is currently passing.

“This is a drop in real incomes, retail turnover, which happened due to a jump in inflation in the middle of the year, somewhere in the second or third quarter – this is the peak,” said the Deputy Prime Minister, speaking at an interregional forum on the implementation of the investment standard (quoted from “Interfax”).

“We may linger on a plateau, we may not linger – somewhere around minus 8-9%, but, nevertheless, most likely, somewhere this year we will begin to increase consumption, there are a number of signs that this is already beginning,” Belousov said. In his opinion, the maximum drop in investment in the country will occur in the first half of 2023.

“This is due to the situation with incomes in industries, and with profits, and with restrictions on production,” Belousov said.

At the end of June, Deputy Prime Minister declaredthat the fall in the gross domestic product (GDP) of Russia in 2022 may be less than the forecast of the Ministry of Economic Development and amount to 3-5% instead of 7.8%. According to Belousov, next year GDP dynamics will be near zero, a slight negative is statistically possible due to the high base in the first quarter of 2022: investments grew by 12.8%, and GDP – by 3.5%.