Moscow. May 8. INTERFAX.RU — business Surveys show a stabilization in economic activity at low levels, leading indicators correspond to the forecast decline of Russia’s GDP in the second quarter to 8%, said the head of the Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina at the briefing on Friday.
“the Indicators published in the last two weeks, allow you to more fully appreciate the economic consequences of restrictive measures (from coronavirus — if) in April and early may. These consequences are very serious,” she said.
“this week came out PMI, which in the treatment decreased to 31 points in April from 47 in March. In services, where the index in March has dropped to 37 points in April (he — if) made up just 12.2 points,” said the head of the Central Bank.
Data on sectoral financial flows for April 20-24 and results of the weekly survey by the Bank of Russia of the enterprises show that the economic activity has stabilized “at lower levels,” said Elvira.
“however, statistics from the operational expenditures of individuals on goods and services shows that the scale of the fall shopping is gradually decreasing”, — also said the head of the Central Bank. According to her, mainly the decline is due to food items that is due to the reduction of the use of catering services. “But in the service sector in the last week you can see signs of slow sales growth”, she added.
According to her, data on leading indicators by the end of April “is consistent with our forecast of GDP decline in the second quarter by 8% year-on-year”.
As reported, at the end of 2020, the Central Bank expects GDP decline in the range of 4-6%.
