Russian economy makes a weak start to Q4

Following last week’s disappointing Q3 GDP growth figures, today’s release of activity data for October suggests that the Russian economy made a weak start to Q4 too. Indeed, the only crumb of comfort is that this summer’s good harvest finally seems to be showing up in a rebound in agricultural production. Nonetheless, while the economy remains weak, the latest warning from the central bank about rising household debt levels suggests that policy loosening remains off the agenda for now.