In response to the following BBC article, quote:

UK expected to be only major economy to shrink in 2023 - The UK economy will shrink and perform worse than other advanced economies, including Russia, as the cost of living continues to hit households, the International Monetary Fund has said.

https://web.archive.org/web/20230131123012/https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64452995

Source of the take: https://knockout.chat/thread/45630/1#post-1657405

  • WhatDoYouMeanPodcast [comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Why is the Russian economy growing? I thought they were withholding oil and doing war. I'm propagandized into not really paying attention to Russia.

      • JuneFall [none/use name]
        ·
        2 years ago

        14% is quite high though, even if money supply increase, as I doubt that most of the precarious people will get less than inflation in wage or income increases. I think that isn't possible to keep up for years. So lets see how it evolves.

      • M68040 [they/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        See, what I wanna know is where I should be with everyone involved being a bunch of socially conservative fucks who aren't even remotely likable and who can't realistically be swayed to loosen up on, say, gay rights

          • RikerDaxism [it/its]
            ·
            2 years ago

            For LGBT rights, Western liberal countries are still unbeatable, unfortunately, although I suspect fascism is already brewing in those countries with neoliberal economies going downhill.

            Cuba?

    • hexaflexagonbear [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I think it's a mixture of every economy (except apparently the UK) being overheated after covid restrictions ease, demand for Russian gas not really dropping (only the prices increasing) , and wartime mobilization means increased production and more money circulating in the economy.

      • WhatDoYouMeanPodcast [comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Oh shit! Does UK being out of the EU mean that they got memed out of economic growth?

        But economic growth sounds kind of gross if it's a bunch of fossil fuels choking the skies and cheap plastic choking the oceans. :agony-deep:

    • AHopeOnceMore [he/him]B
      ·
      2 years ago

      Russia is only withholding oil from countries that refuse to pay for it (a few Euro ones). And even those countries still buy it, just at jacked-up prices through a middle man. This is a great example of western propaganda in real time, because this situation is always characterized as Russia actively trying to screw over Europe, rathee than European countries sanctioning Russia and therefore refusing to pay for the oil they ordered.

      Rusdia is in a decent economic situation for a few reasons, though keep in mind they are capitalist and exploitation and suffering were therefore already the order of the day. They can make tons of money off their oil, still, through higher prices for Europe and more volume to China and India. They have robust trade with China, so consumer and industrial goods are still available. They have a decent industrial base that they are attempting to rapidly expand. They have a monetary policy that is okay. Still lots of dumb capitalist shit, but they have recognized that they need to do more industrial capital and infrastructure development, plus getting threatened by the US for a decade with fiscal weapins has led to heavy investments in BRICS and USD-independent payment and clearing systems.

      The simple version is that Russia has a decently-sized "real" economic base on top of their massive oil exports and have protected themselves decently well from international finance capital, plus their internal fiscal policy has just enough planning rejection of neoliberal approaches that they aren't actively tanking their economy for the sake of line going up (which, ironically, also makes the line go up).