Russian companies have reported a sharp rise in losses so far this year, with total negative results jumping nearly 25% year-on-year to 6.52 trillion rubles ($83.3 billion) in the January-September period, the Vedomosti business daily reported Thursday, citing data from state statistics agency Rosstat.
About 18,400 firms posted losses, or 11% more than the same period of 2024.
Profit-making companies generated 25.7 trillion rubles ($32.8 billion), marking a 1.2% decline from 2024. Aggregate net profit fell 7.7% to 19.2 trillion rubles as a result.
Several sectors saw more than half of companies operating at a loss.
The worst hit were coal mining (68.1%), electricity, gas and steam supply (54.7%) and water and waste services (52.9%).
Loss-making firms also approached the 50% mark in logging (45%), oil extraction (48.1%), finance and insurance (44%) and research and development (41.8%).
The share of profitable companies declined across most industries over the nine-month period.
A handful of sectors bucked the trend, including fishing (+12 percentage points), air and space transport (+10.8 percentage points), public administration and national defense (+7.4 percentage points) and pharmaceutical manufacturing (+4.9 percentage points) all saw profitability improve.
Nearly 40% of companies reported problems with overdue payments from counterparties in the third quarter, according to the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP).
State-owned companies were among those delaying payments under federal procurement contracts.
Business investment has also weakened, with capital expenditure growth slowing almost sixfold from 8.7% in the first quarter to 1.5% in the second quarter, Rosstat said.
Nearly 714,000 legal entities and individual entrepreneurs had outstanding bank loans as of October, with about a quarter behind on payments, according to Central Bank statistics.
This share is the highest in at least two and a half years. The figure has risen six percentage points over the past 12 months and nearly doubled since early 2023.
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