2y ago

Russia got richer even as the war in Ukraine raged on last year, while the West shed trillions of dollars of wealth

www.businessinsider.com

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2y ago

Russia got richer even as the war in Ukraine raged on last year, while the West shed trillions of dollars of wealth

www.businessinsider.com /war-in-ukraine-russia-richer-millionaires-billionaires-uhnw-wealth-ubs-2023-8

16 comments

Ah yes, we should definitely believe Russian reports of how rich Russians are. Damn, I’ve seen a lot of articles like this recently. It must be really ugly for Russia if they’re trying to convince us it’s bad for us when we’re not at war lmfaooooo
- known kremlin mouthpiece, UBS lmao
  
  famous Putin puppets they are
- Business Insider is American, UBS is Swiss.
- I almost spit up my drink that headline was so funny. Introduce us to the 2nd richest country and your long-time friend.....North Korea!
  
  Indeed. Money is only worth something if you can buy something with it.
What does the lower exchange between the ruble and the dollar mean then? The ruble is worth less dollars than before.
UBS (a Swiss bank) doesn't really have reason to lie about the wealth increase. Is the exchange rate thing just because rubles are less useful internationally because sanctions?
The US has inflation, and if the ruble is worth less dollars then that means Russia has even more inflation.
Obviously all our media wants to paint a picture of Russia doing terribly, but I wonder what the actual picture is. All the companies that left Russia left behind all their shit for Russia to use which if anything helps them keep more production in their own borders.
- Lower rouble means that Russian exports are cheaper and more attractive allowing government get more money domestically after conversion thus helping balance the budget. It also means that imports are higher of course, but seems that exports are what's relevant for state budget in Russia. Deficit in Russia is only around 2% of the GDP, compare that to the astronomical deficit US is running.
  Also worth noting that rouble value against the dollar doesn't have much practical meaning given that there's very little direct trade between Russia and the west.
  
  The American deficit is less than 5% of GDP, so it's larger relative to the economy but not exactly what I'd called astronomically higher.
Ya'll can't even pay russian border guards to keep out other russians, let alone Ukrainian saboteurs.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Russians got richer last year even as the war in Ukraine raged on, while the US and Europe lost trillions of dollars, UBS reported.
There were also 1 million fewer American millionaires by the end of 2022,  although the US still accounted for over 50% of the world's ultra-high-net-worth individuals, the bank said.
UBS acknowledges that "wealth trends in Russia are difficult to determine at this time," but did highlight it as one of a handful of countries that had gotten richer in 2022.
Rising oil prices could be one factor behind the wealth increase, with exports of the commodity a key economic engine for Russia.
The cost of a barrel of benchmark Urals crude jumped by about $7 last year, data from Refinitiv indicated.
Mexico, India, and Brazil all also added significant amounts of wealth in 2022, UBS's report suggested, while the US, Japan, China, Canada, and Australia lost the most.
I'm a bot and I'm open source!

16 comments