Russian capital expenditure to demonstrate resilience

Russian capital spending remains the most resilient component of domestic demand which was marginally supported by a rather rapid restoration of overall profits and abundant government spending since the start of 2015. Moderate growth in the corporate FX-denominated loan book since February (+5.8%) and marginal growth in the ruble-denominated book since April (+0.5%) could have provided more tangible support for investments in Q2 15, said Societe Generale in a report on Thursday. 

Finally, taking into account an ongoing improvement in producers' sentiment, as registered by the Rosstat industrial survey, provides with an estimate that investment in production capacity in May may have continued to rise (+0.6% mom sa), but due to base effects, remained depressed yoy (-5.0% yoy versus -4.8% yoy in April), notes SocGen.