Spending cuts loom

Hello! Welcome to your weekly guide to the Russian economy, written by Alexandra Prokopenko and Alexander Kolyandr and brought to you by The Bell. This week our main story is a look at how Russian officials are gearing up for spending cuts. We also analyze the Central Bank’s decision to slash interest rates by 2 percentage points. 

Russian officials look to tighten the purse strings

Russia is preparing to embark on a major period of belt tightening as a result of a cooling economy, fall in oil-and-gas revenues, and dwindling reserves. After more than three years of bullish rhetoric in which officials repeated “All for the front! All for victory!”, the focus is now on reducing spending. We can already guess where some of these cuts might fall.