In June 2022 when Russia's central bank managed the RBL to make it nonconvertible you were cheerleading about how strong the Russian economy was. I debunked that forex illiterate idea then. Now that the Russian central bank's currency management is falling apart under the pressure of the oil price cap, unfinanceable deficits and sovereign wealth fund drawdown you trot out this nonsense that the RBL forex rate is irrelevant to measuring Russian economic performance. You can't have it both ways. Even Russian TV apparatchiks know there’s a problem: https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1689595698247868416
Your idea of doubling Russian GDP with PPP is as valid as the Rosstat numbers on which it's based, which are as reliable as China's. One year after the crash in 2008 China reported 7% growth when it's electricity consumption declined by 15%.
PPP is irrelevant when dealing with a managed currency. It's also useless for measuring services that aren't internationally traded:
"The IMF considers that GDP in purchase-power-parity (PPP) terms is not the most appropriate measure for comparing the relative size of countries to the global economy, because PPP price levels are influenced by nontraded services, which are more relevant domestically than globally. The IMF believes that GDP at market rates is a more relevant comparison.
— International Monetary Fund spokeperson, Webber, Jude (2011). China's rise, America's demise. Financial Times.
"The goods that the currency has the "power" to purchase are a basket of goods of different types:
Category 1: Local, non-tradable goods and services (like electric power) that are produced and sold domestically.
Category 2: Tradable goods such as non-perishable commodities that can be sold on the international market (like diamonds).
The more that a product falls into category 1, the further its price will be from the currency exchange rate, moving towards the PPP exchange rate. Conversely, category 2 products tend to trade close to the currency exchange rate."
Sanctions have pushed up the % of Russian GDP of category 1 goods and the crash in Russian imports has trashed the % of category 2 components of Russian GDP.
A Big Mac costs $6.89 in Switzerland and $5.22 in Norway. Is Norway 30% wealthier than Switzerland? Don't think so. When the Swiss central bank suppressed the CHF's value against the euro did that raise Switzerland's GDP? Nope. When it pulled the plug on its euro buying and let the CHF spike upward from 1.20 CHF/euro to parity did Switzerland's GDP go up? Nope. This was especially true for Swatch's CEO, who, the next day said "I have no words" in response to the Swiss central bank's withdrawal of artifical forex support for Swiss exporters.
Germany's GDP is over $4tn. Russia's is $1.48tn and shrinking except for its military component. Real estate and auto sales have collapsed, which shows the true trend of purchasing power. Listen to this exiled Russian Konstantin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3lJimZJ7wM
Or Joe Blogs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwWAYIKn_KA
Russia's economy is in the same shape as its lunar landings. And your cherry-picked forex illiterate disinformation cheerleading for this dying empire won't change that.
