May 13, 2025
(Interfax Russia & CIS Energy Newswire)
–
MOSCOW
.
May 13
(Interfax) - The following is a digest of
Moscow
newspapers published on
May 13
. Interfax does not accept liability for information in these stories.
ECONOMICS
The Russian government on Monday submitted a bill to the State Duma to revise the 2025 federal budget in line with macroeconomic changes. Oil and gas revenues are now expected to drop by a quarter due to sharply lower oil prices and the stronger ruble, and other revenues, such as from profit tax and the vehicle scrapping fee are also expected to fall. The deficit will therefore triple to
3.8 trillion rubles
or 1.7% of GDP, as the spending plan will even increase slightly (Kommersant, p. 2; Vedomosti).
BANKING,
FINANCE & INSURANCE
Investors in
Russia
are steadily increasing investment in mutual funds, although they prefer conservative instruments at this point. The net inflow into retail mutual funds exceeded
40 billion rubles
in April, with over
25 billion rubles
going into bond funds. Demand for money market funds is also recovering. But interest in riskier equity funds is only expected to increase in the middle of this year at the earliest if the
Central Bank
actually eases its monetary policy (Kommersant, p. 7).
RETAIL & CONSUMER MARKET
Russia's
largest beer producer, AB InBev Efes has started to make Zeno cold tea in two flavors, green tea and black lemon tea. Amid growing demand for non-alcoholic beverages in
Russia
, brewers are entering this market to diversify their core business, which is stagnating. But while sales of cold non-alcoholic drinks are growing, there is also stiff competition in this segment (Kommersant, p. 7).
REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTION
Sales of apartments in new residential developments in the
Moscow
region fell 7.8% month-on-month and 12.7% year-on-year to 10,348 in April. The steepest year-on-year drop was 19.2% within the old boundaries of the Russian capital. The decline was due largely to rising home prices and sky-high mortgage rates. Demand only remained firm in New Moscow, where prices are lower (Vedomosti).
TELECOMMUNICATIONS, MEDIA
& TECHNOLOGY
Some 38.4 million Russians or 28% of the television audience over the age of four years tuned in to 21 TV channels to watch the 80th anniversary Victory Day parade on
Red Square
on
May 9
, the highest figure in five years. The number of channels broadcasting the event was also the highest in five years.
Channel 1
led with 16.3 million viewers, followed by
Russia
1 with 9 million. Experts attribute the strong interest to the round number anniversary and the attendance of many foreign leaders (Vedomosti).
Energy and aluminum group En+ is suing companies affiliated with its former partner,
Russia's
largest cryptocurrency mining operator BitRiver, for
1.21 billion rubles
. A court has already ordered BitRiver to pay over
950 million rubles
and issued an injunction barring the company from using equipment used as collateral. Another claim of over
250 million rubles
is still pending. Lawyers said the "tough measures" could paralyze the business (Kommersant, p. 7).
Video hosting service YouTube was the leading content platform by advertising spending on influencer marketing in
Russia
last year, accounting for 47.9% or
27.6 billion rubles
of advertising in this segment, industry association AKAR reported. Instagram was second with 20% or
11.6 billion rubles
, Telegram followed with 19.8% or
11.5 billion rubles
and VK was fourth with 11.2% or
6.5 billion rubles
. However, YouTube and Instagram have seen their audience in
Russia
shrink (Vedomosti).
The Russian IT Development Fund
will get
13.65 billion rubles
from the
Digital Ministry
to support domestic information technology companies with grants in 2025-2027. This will include
4.56 billion rubles
this year,
4.55 billion rubles
in 2026 and
4.5 billion rubles
in 2027. The funding is aimed at fine-tuning and rolling out so-called "especially important projects," meaning Russian analogs of foreign IT solutions (Vedomosti).
TRANSPORTATION & LOGISTICS
Russian flag carrier
Aeroflot's
domestic passenger traffic fell for the fourth consecutive month in April, dropping 3.3% year-on-year to 1.5 million. But its international traffic grew by 15.2% to 777,000 passengers. In the first four months of 2025, domestic traffic slumped 4% while international traffic rose 8.4%. Analysts attribute the trend to a surge in demand for foreign vacations amid the strengthening of the ruble and airlines' seeking to maximize earnings on more profitable flights (Kommersant, p. 1).
AUTOMOTIVE & ENGINEERING
The Russian government has updated the strategy to develop the shipbuilding industry, expanding the planning horizon to 2036 and onward to 2050. The strategy sets specific targets for building new shipyards and vessels based on the anticipated growth of cargo and passenger shipping and fishing. The baseline scenario sees Russian shipyards delivering 4,271 civilian vessels by 2051, including 713 in 2025-2030. Experts believe the
Cabinet's
expectations are inflated in the current situation (Vedomosti).
Interview: Alexei Kalitsev, CEO of
AGR Automotive Group
(Kommersant, p. 9).
Vp ak
(Our editorial staff can be reached at eng.editors@interfax.ru)
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