Rosstat starts hiding key economic data to "prevent recession"

Russian authorities continue to hide important state statistics from the public, from demographics and crime rates to basic economic indicators. About this writes The Moscow Times.

According to analysts of the Russian bank PSB, after the Russian President Vladimir Putin at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum 2025, Rosstat declared that "a recession cannot be allowed," and sharply reduced the amount of open economic information.

The report for June and the first half of 2025 was not published:

• data on real retail trade turnover (adjusted for inflation);
• figures on the real turnover of wholesale trade – nominally, it grew by only 0.4% year-on-year, which, when adjusted for inflation, could mean a drop of almost 10%;
• real GDP growth figures for June, which are usually provided by the Russian Ministry of Economic Development.

The concealment of statistics in Russia became widespread after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It was classified as "secret":

• customs data and the structure of foreign exchange reserves;
• information on oil and gas production (from 2023);
• statistics on gasoline and diesel production (since 2024 after the Ukrainian drone attacks);
• data on mortality by age and region, and subsequently on the causes of death;
• detailed demographic statistics, including births, deaths, marriages and divorces (from 2025);
• total population of the Russian Federation;
• data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the number of people killed by crime.

Economists believe that the classification of statistics allows the Kremlin to conceal the real extent of economic stagnation and social problems.

• On July 25, the Central Bank of Russia sharply reduced the interest rate due to the risk of recession.
• The Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine expects that the Russian economy will start to collapse by the end of 2025 under pressure from sanctions and military spending.