Rosstat and the Ministry of Economic Development began publishing statistics later than usual. Reuters linked this to the desire to hide “terrible figures”

Rosstat and the Ministry of Economic Development began to publish statistics and forecasts later than usual, Reuters noted. According to his sources, in this way the government hopes to draw less attention to the economic crisis due to the epidemic of coronavirus infection in Russia.

If earlier Rosstat published data around 16:00 Moscow time on weekdays, then, for example, on May 21, the agency posted statistics on industrial production in April at 21:00 Moscow time.

The Ministry of Economic Development (MED) in April and May published estimates of GDP growth at 20:00 and 22:30 Moscow time, Reuters writes. The three-year forecast for economic growth, which the Ministry of Economic Development worsened compared to February due to falling oil prices, was published only at 23:00, the agency noted.

In April, Russian GDP, according to the Ministry of Economic Development, fell by 12%, according to the results of the year, the ministry expects a fall of 5%. Industrial production in April, which was declared a non-working month, fell by 6.6% in annual terms, retail trade turnover - by 23.4%, the agency writes, calling it "terrible numbers."

The Ministry of Economic Development and Federal State Statistics Service explained the later publication of the data by the difficulties due to the transfer of employees to remote work during the epidemic. A government spokesman did not comment on the reason for the late publications.

“Rosstat is prohibited from publishing data or required that they at least reschedule the time. Now they are trying at least on the same day, but in the evening, so that there is no news in the morning, ”a source familiar with the situation told Reuters.

Reuters