South Africa's rand inched weaker on Friday, remaining on the back foot against a recovering dollar after upbeat U.S. weekly jobs data brought back bets of high lending rates by the Federal Reserve.
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MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia’s economy avoided catastrophe during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and is now approaching pre-crisis levels, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday, an assertion backed up by data showing a 34.7% jump in retail sales in April.
FILE PHOTO: A shop assistant puts a sale sign on a show window in Moscow, Russia June 18, 2020. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov
Russia’s commodity-dependent economy is on the mend after a 3% contraction in 2020, its sharpest in 11 years, when lockdown restrictions stifled economic activity, but officials say a recovery to levels of late 2019 is imminent.
Retail sales, a barometer of consumer demand and Russia’s key economic driver, rose 34.7% in year-on-year terms, the Federal Statistics Service Rosstat said, beating a 23% increase forecast in a Reuters poll of analysts.