Author Archives: Menzie Chinn

“source of the weakening of the ruble…is soft monetary policy.”: Putin Chief Economic Adviser

From Bloomberg:

Writing in a rare column published by state news agency Itar-Tass, President Vladimir Putin’s chief economic adviser said “the source of the weakening of the ruble and the acceleration of inflation is soft monetary policy.” Russia needs a strong ruble, and policymakers have the necessary tools to normalize the currency value in the near future, he said.

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Russian GDP and GDP ex-Military Spending

There has been much discussion of how Russian GDP growth exceeded some forecasts (see discussion here). While GDP measures output, it does not measure only output that contributes to necessary to welfare. It also excludes non-market mediated activities. One big change in the past year and a half is military expenditures, which is now a larger component of GDP. In Figure 1 below, I show real GDP growth y/y as reported, and real GDP growth ex-military spending as tabulated by SIPRI.

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