A Spending Boom Fuels Russia’s Wartime Economy, Raising Bubble Fears

Original Article:

Source: Link

After Russia invaded Ukraine, Anna Gromova, a Russian entrepreneur, made a snap decision to open a real estate agency, hoping to create a safety net from the economic fallout of the conflict. The career change has paid off. Within weeks, she landed a deal for a stately 18th-century apartment, with parquet floors and high ceilings in the prestigious center of Russia’s former imperial capital of St. Petersburg. Since the war, the owner had stopped coming to Russia, allowing her client to buy it for roughly 40 percent below its current value. “We in Russia have become accustomed to living in a state of permanent crisis,” said Ms. Gromova, who has bought two investment properties for herself and brokered the sale of 150 others in the past year. Amid the constant shocks, people are looking for “a window of opportunity” to secure their income, she added. Her business has been underpinned by a state-led spending boom that has propped up the national economy despite the swiftest and most far-reaching campaign of sanctions imposed by Western nations in modern history.