Russia’s economy is continuing to decline “after hitting rock bottom,” a report by Moscow’sHigher School of Economics (HSE) revealed Monday. The Russian economy contracted across almost all sectors in the first half of 2016, with construction, retail and manufacturing sectors all badly hit, Sputnik reported. The increasing competitiveness of Russian exports, thanks to the devaluation of the ruble, has not been able to compensate for decreasing domestic demand, the report found. The construction sector contracted by a record 10%, falling below levels recorded during the 2009 global crisis. Turnover in the retail sector also fell by 3.1%, down some 15% in total compared to pre-sanction levels in 2014. Industrial production in the last six months also decreased by 0.1%. “The economy has adapted to this ‘new normality’, but that is only the first phase,” the report said. Russia’s GDP has shrunk by 0.9% since the start of the year, and HSE experts believe that it could fall as much as 1.5% by the end of 2016.
