{"id":382427,"date":"2026-04-16T12:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T12:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/382427\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T12:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T12:10:09","slug":"russian-central-bank-governor-warns-of-unprecedented-labor-shortage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/382427\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian Central Bank Governor Warns of Unprecedented Labor Shortage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Russia\u00a0is facing a labor shortage for the first time in its modern history, Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina said Thursday, warning that an overheated\u00a0economy is driving inflation and complicating interest rate policy.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at the Moscow Exchange Forum, Nabiullina <a href=\"https:\/\/forum2026.moex.com\/#media\" title=\"said\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a> Russia\u2019s unemployment rate remains at a historic low of 2%. The lack of available workers has forced employers to raise wages to compete for staff, which in turn has increased production costs and consumer spending power.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a new reality for the government and for business alike,\u201d Nabiullina <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rbc.ru\/economics\/16\/04\/2026\/69e092939a7947358980ddb8?utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F\" title=\"said\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cIn the past, high-rate cycles were tied to temporary external shocks, and once things stabilized, we cut rates fairly quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow, however, we are facing a persistent downturn in external conditions affecting both exports and imports,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\t\tnews<br \/>\n\t\t<a data-id=\"in-article-block\" class=\"related-article__inner\" href=\"https:\/\/www.themoscowtimes.com\/2026\/04\/16\/putin-demands-answers-as-russias-economy-undershoots-expectations\" title=\"Putin Demands Answers as Russia\u2019s Economy Undershoots Expectations\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tPutin Demands Answers as Russia\u2019s Economy Undershoots Expectations<br \/>\n\t\t\tRead more<br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Russia\u2019s Central Bank had previously pointed to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themoscowtimes.com\/2025\/07\/31\/russias-labor-shortage-persists-despite-central-bank-optimism-a90044\" title=\"slight increase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">slight increase<\/a> in the available workforce as a reason for lowering its key rate from an all-time high. However, Nabiullina warned last year that the lack of workers remains a primary threat to price stability, alongside high consumer spending.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, Nabiullina also <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/kommersant\/105575\" title=\"cited\" rel=\"nofollow\">cited<\/a> persistent inflationary pressure caused by supply chain disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz. The narrow waterway, through which a fifth of global oil supplies normally passes, remains effectively closed due to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"6\">Nabiullina\u2019s remarks come ahead of the Russian Central Bank\u2019s next interest rate meeting scheduled for April 24.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"6\">On Wednesday, President Vladimir Putin <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/finance\/russias-putin-scolds-top-officials-economic-contraction-2026-04-15\/\" title=\"ordered\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ordered<\/a>\u00a0top economic officials to develop new measures to stimulate growth after the economy contracted by 1.8% in the first two months of the year, falling short of government forecasts.<\/p>\n<p>A Message from The Moscow Times:<\/p>\n<p>Dear readers,<\/p>\n<p>We are facing unprecedented challenges. 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For details on the personal data we collect and how it is used, please see our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themoscowtimes.com\/page\/privacy-policy\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"privacy policy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russia\u00a0is facing a labor shortage for the first time in its modern history, Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,22914,219,20683,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-382427","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-central-bank","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-elvira-nabiullina","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}