OREANDA-NEWS  In August 2023, the business climate indicator (IBC) in Russia, reflecting companies' current estimates of demand, output and prices, dropped to almost zero — from 2.1 in July to 0.2 points. This is stated in the monitoring of enterprises of the Central Bank of Russia, in a survey conducted by more than 14 thousand companies in the non-financial sector of the economy expressed their opinion about the current and future situation.

The assessment of the dynamics of indicators for the next three months at the same time remained at the same level — 10.3 points, as a result, the Central Bank's consolidated IBC decreased from 6.2 to 5.2 points. The indicator decreased in most sectors of the economy, most of all in the transport sector and wholesale trade. Estimates of the current and expected volume of output and price growth affected the final result the most. Speaking about the main reasons limiting production, the business spoke about the shortage of personnel (primarily workers), a significant increase in costs and an increase in delivery times due to logistics problems.

The expectations of enterprises on demand have increased slightly, especially noticeably in agriculture and in the motor vehicle trade sector, which is due to the projected growth in sales of domestic and Chinese cars. The Kommersant newspaper notes that in the August index of industrial optimism of the Gaidar Institute, on the contrary, estimates of current and expected output and demand increased, decreasing only in terms of a sharp increase in stocks. The author of the estimates, Sergey Tsukhlo, at the same time believes that the latter can be a positive signal, as it speaks of "the readiness of enterprises to increase demand and support the current output."

At the same time, in August, the companies' price expectations increased, exceeding the values of 2021-2022, the Central Bank said. The growth of enterprise costs accelerated in August in all sectors except the electric power industry, most of all it was felt by trading companies, as well as the transportation and storage sector. Among the reasons for such dynamics, managers most often noted an increase in the price of raw materials and materials against the background of the weakening of the ruble and also a significant increase in prices for fuels and lubricants. The companies also mentioned an increase in logistics costs.