Increase in financial flows in April indicates Russian economy continues to grow - Central Bank

MOSCOW. May 8 (Interfax) - An increase in financial flows indicates that the Russian economy continues to grow in April, the Russian Central Bank said in a commentary.

The volume of incoming payments made through the Bank of Russia payment system in April 2024 exceeded the average level in Q1 2024 by 2.7%. Excluding production, petroleum products and government administration, revenues increased 2.4%, the Central Bank said.

"The growth of incoming payments accelerated relative to both Q1 2024 and Q4 2023 in all large groups of industries, except for government demand industries," the regulator said.

Receipts in consumer demand industries increased 1.9% in April. Growth was driven mainly by financial services and the retail trade. Restraining factors for payment growth in this segment were food production, food service, education and healthcare.

Government demand sectors were the only group with a slight decrease in the volume of incoming payments (-0.2%), the Central Bank said.

The greatest increase in financial flows came from investment demand, which was up 6% versus the average level of Q1 2024. The main increase in the segment came from construction. Growth was tempered by metallurgy, architecture and engineering design.

The volume of incoming payments in intermediate demand industries exceeded the average level of Q1 by 3.4%. In addition to financial services, fabricated metal products and land and pipeline transport activities made a positive contribution to revenue dynamics. There was a decrease in flows in metallurgy, rental and leasing.

Payments in export demand sectors increased 2.6% versus Q1, when there was a decrease in the indicator. The main sources of growth were mining services, metal ore mining, oil and natural gas production. Revenues declined in metallurgy and coal mining.