Officials have flagged the drop in corporate profits as a key area of concern for the economy, which contracted by 2.1% last year, and is set for another decline in 2023, according to most estimates.
Russia's economy proved unexpectedly resilient last year, but a return to pre-conflict levels of prosperity may be far off as more government spending is directed towards the military. Russian companies' profits amounted to 2.18 trillion roubles in December, a 22.5% drop from 2.81 trillion roubles in December 2021, the Rosstat data showed. Despite the lower corporate profits, Russia's government is planning to levy a one-off "voluntary" windfall tax on big business, a prospect tabled in light of a widening budget deficit and narrowing current account surplus.
Slumping energy revenues and soaring expenditure pushed Russia's federal budget to a deficit of 2.58 trillion roubles in January-February. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has said that oil and gas companies will be excluded from the windfall tax.
It is not yet clear whether banks, whose profits slumped around 90% in 2022, would have to contribute.
Sberbank CEO German Gref said on Thursday that possibility
was still being discussed, and that his company would comply
with any laws. Sberbank has returned to profitability after a
near 80% drop last year.
($1 = 75.7980 roubles)
(Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya and Alexander Marrow
Editing by Gareth Jones)
