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Russia hikes interest rates to 15% as inflation soars (www.bbc.com)

submitted 1 year ago by alphacyberranger@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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[-] noride@lemm.ee 145 points 1 year ago

It's always so strange to me that we don't see the same bombastic support from the tankies over news like this, surely this is another genius move which underscores the futility of Western sanctions, right? Another 5d chess move to bring Ukraine to it's knees, or dismantle the petrodollar, surely? 🙃

[-] Sabin10@lemmy.world 38 points 1 year ago

You think the kids that sat at the back of the classroom, saying learning math is a waste of time because they'll never need to use it, can form an opinion on this? They see the words "interest rate" and decide this news is completely irrelevant because they can't understand it.

[-] umbrella@lemmy.ml 23 points 1 year ago

you are aware russia hasnt been socialist for decades right?

russia is a failed proto-fascist state.

[-] Lycerius@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yes, they're aware. They're also aware that ML types will support Russia regardless, because no evil is too great so long as it even mildly inconveniences the West.

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[-] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 59 points 1 year ago

The Bank of Russia, the country's central bank, has now raised rates by 7.5 percentage points since July

Holy crap, 7.5% in (basically) 1 quarter. Imagine trying to buy a house and having your loan repayment amount jumping faster than you can get paperwork filed.

[-] krellor@kbin.social 60 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

So your comment made me go "lol, imagine buying a house in Russia." Meaning my preconceptions were that most in Russia didn't have the means to own a home.

But then I'm like, I don't actually know that, let's check it out.

According to this site home ownership in Russia is over 90%. So what you outlined is a real problem for people there, and changes some of my mental picture of Russian life.

The more you know!

[-] Skua@kbin.social 13 points 1 year ago

I suppose 30 years of mostly declining population has probably significantly reduced the pressure on the housing supply

[-] uis@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

I still have question how even stagnated population would even pressure housing supply at all.

[-] Mkengine@feddit.de 4 points 1 year ago

I was wondering the same thing for Germany, our population is stagnating, but apparently we need 400,000 new apartments per year (according to our government). Maybe because there are more divorces and singles nowadays who want to live alone?

[-] Skua@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

Germany's population has actually increased by almost four million in the past ten years, so that number of new apartments seems pretty reasonable at the moment. There will always be some homes that need replaced each year too, if they become unsuitable for living or are converted to non-residential purposes

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[-] andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 year ago

It's complicated by the fact a lot of flats were privatized after the fall of USSR. It's like a boomer situation in the US. Many still live in what their parents claimed.

[-] netwren@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

90% sounds really high? At least compared to the states where it seems a vast majority is renting??

No idea the data on this, just going off my anecdotal experience.

[-] Aux@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Everything was owned by the state during Soviet times. Then the people got the chance to privatise their homes for pennies. Now everyone is an owner. That happened to all countries which were a part of USSR, not just Russia. Renting is a very weird concept over there. You only rent if: you travel a lot for work, you're a poor student in a different city and your uni didn't provide accommodation, or you're an alcoholic who lost their home.

Source: born and raised in USSR.

[-] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago

90% own houses, but evidently a much lower percentage also own a washing machine, judging from the souvenirs the conscripts have been bringing home

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[-] krellor@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago

I was surprised as well. It would be worth confirming the dates from a second source, but there are some ready possible explanations for it as well. It could show a large number of multigenerational households. It could relate to the distribution of the population in high and low cost areas (rural vs urban likely). So it does seem high, but not impossible.

Cheers!

[-] ninjan@lemmy.mildgrim.com 11 points 1 year ago

Another large factor is that it was communism up until relatively recently. Meaning wealth was largely evenly distributed outside the very top of the party. Not that people were well off, but far more equal than we are in the west. And while the oligarchs have an extremely outsized percentage of all Russian wealth buying real estate would make little sense in Russia, that would 1) put their position in Russia in danger by painting a target on them 2) a horrible hedge given Russia isn't the most stable economy. In total I think 90% sounds extremely reasonable. Though the average house standard is of course far lower than say Germany.

[-] krellor@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago

That seems reasonable. I also think it stems from my idea of ownership being a standalone house, and didn't include things like owned apartments, flats, condos, etc that would make up a large state of ownership in big cities.

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[-] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 3 points 1 year ago

Hold on, 90%? I guess that would include the whole family in the home as the home owners, because otherwise that is an insane amount of single occupant dwellings.

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[-] amenotef@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Offtopic (because it has nothing to do with Russia): in Argentina the inflation of the local currency this year reached at least 100% annual.

But people there use USD fiat for purchasing real estate. And use USD/EUR for saving.

So even if the local currency is a mess, people moves using foreign currency for important transactions.

[-] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The Bank of Russia (back when things were so bad they had to halt their stock market) has also forbid people for using more than small amounts of foreign currency. I believe people are limited to the equivalent of 10,000 rubles, or $100 per week.

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[-] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 42 points 1 year ago

buT tHE sANcTioNs dOn’T dO ANyThiNg

[-] paddirn@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago

Part of me is hopeful that this means something will eventually break, but it's also hard to get past some of the initial predictions I was reading when the war first started, that Russia couldn't keep up the war longer than a few months, that Russia was going to collapse at almost any moment. Now it seems like Russia is converting to a permanent wartime economy and that this thing is expected to drag on for years to come. It makes me wonder, even when Putin eventually dies, does Russia just continue on with the war out of sheer momentum, because the next person knows what a shitshow things will turn into if they try to end the war?

[-] uis@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

when Putin eventually dies, does Russia just continue on with the war out of sheer momentum

My prediction that in such event war will just stop, Shulman's prediction is war will be immidiately forgotten as mass delirium.

"Time will come when Putin's mansions will be shown on federal TV".

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[-] uphillbothways@kbin.social 16 points 1 year ago

Not sure this is going to help much when the ruble is tanking internationally, state reserves are frozen, sanctions are still taking effect, and property is being seized from oligarchs, all while a misguided war is being waged at full tilt. Pretty sure it's just putting more pressure on the wrong parts of the economy that are already about to break. But, I'm no economist and Russia's gonna Russia, so whatever.

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[-] cabron_offsets@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Fuck ‘em.

[-] mrsgreenpotato@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 year ago

Working in logistics I asked my boss a few weeks ago to which of our internal geo clusters does Russia belong to, and he replied exactly "to the fuck 'em cluster". Happily agreed with that statement.

[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 7 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Russia's central bank has put up its key interest rate to 15% to try to curb inflation and bolster a weak rouble.

The higher-than-expected rate hike of two percentage points raises borrowing costs for the fourth time in a row.

This includes an unscheduled emergency hike in August as the rouble tumbled past 100 to the dollar and the Kremlin called for tighter monetary policy.

Pressure has also been mounting on the Russian economy due to imports rising faster than exports and military spending growing for the Ukraine war.

But rate hikes can only go so far in steadying an economy, and analysts have said Russia could struggle to attract investment due to Western sanctions.

EU leaders introduced a price cap plan to limit the amount Russia earns from its oil exports and the country has also been excluded from Swift, an international payment system used by thousands of financial institutions.

The original article contains 474 words, the summary contains 151 words. Saved 68%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

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this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2023

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