Investments in Russia Up by 4.6% in 2022 - Statistics Agency

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Investments in fixed assets in Russia increased by 4.6% in 2022 year-on-year, with the growth in the fourth quarter amounting to 3.3% in annual terms, Russian statistics agency Rosstat said on Friday.

In nominal terms, investments made between January 2022 and December 2022 amounted to 27.865 trillion rubles (about $366 billion), according to the agency's report on the 2021-2022 investments dynamic.

In the fourth quarter of 2022, the volume of investments in fixed assets reached 11.25 trillion rubles.

The agency's report also said that investments in Russia had increased by 13.8% in the first quarter year-over-year and by 3.3% in the second quarter of 2022 year-on-year. The third quarter of 2022 marked a 2.3% growth year-on-year.

For comparison, in 2021, investments grew by 8.6% year-on-year.

The investments trend in Russia in 2022 turned out to be significantly more positive than expected. In particular, the Russian Ministry of Economic Development predicted a 2% fall by the end of the year in the latest version of its forecast, released in September.

In late summer, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Andrey Belousov explained the investments growth by the fact that businesses, instead of cutting their spending, on the contrary, were seeking to complete those programs and projects that were possible.

Spain's Imports of Russian Gas Up by Over 150% in February - Energy Firm

Rosstat's figures came on Friday as data from Spanish energy firm Enagas revealed that Spain's imports of Russian gas jumped 151% in February 2023 year-on-year to 5,465 gigawatt hours (GWh), accounting for 17.2% of the country's total gas imports.

Russia was surpassed only by Spain's two traditionally large gas exporters — Algeria with 7,481 GWh (23.5% of the total) and the United States with 7,263 GWh (22.8%). Overall, Spain imported 31,862 GWh of natural gas in February 2023, the company said.

Spain has been actively promoting itself as a gas hub able to resolve the European energy crisis caused by reduction in Russian gas supplies, given that the country is currently one of the EU member states with the most diversified list of natural suppliers, with over 20 exporters.

The European Union has faced a massive energy crisis as part of the post-pandemic global economic recession. The situation further exacerbated against the backdrop of the Ukraine crisis, since the hostilities and Western sanctions against Moscow have led to disruptions of supply chains and resulted in a spike in energy prices worldwide.