The World Bank in Russia

A new report, Competing in the Digital Age: Policy Implications for the Russian Federation, examines the role of emerging technologies in digital transformation and the policy responses to the disruptions they cause across a broad spectrum of economic activity. The report analyzes the successes and challenges of digital transformation in Russia and develops recommendations to help policy makers accelerate the pace of digital transformation across the main sectors of the Russian economy.

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The Human Capital Index quantifies the contribution of health and education to the productivity of the next generation of workers. Countries can use it to assess how much income they are foregoing because of human capital gaps, and how much faster they can turn these losses into gains if they act now.

Russia Overview | In Russian | Full Data

Monetary policy remained consistent with the inflation-targeting regime, and is moving from moderately tight to neutral. Moderately tight monetary and fiscal policies, in combination with a favorable external environment and some one- off factors, let the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) to reach a record-low level of CPI inflation in 2017. CBR continued its gradual approach to monetary easing, moving from a moderately tight policy to a neutral one. Annual inflation now stands at a record-low level, even below the CBR’s target of 4 percent, while inflation expectations, though trending downward, remain elevated (Figure 5a). However, pro-inflationary factors are on the rise, as discussed later in the outlook section. Russia Economic Report 39

In 2017, the export value of goods in all categories – except for energy goods, metals and wheat, other important commodities exported by Russia – increased by 17%, y/y. Export value of tradable services such as ICT and business services increased by 21.6%, y/y and 7.8%, y/y respectively.

While this is a positive development, the share of oil and gas exports in total export of goods (by value) remains high at 58.7%.

Read more: Russia Economic Report 39