The COVID-19 and Macroeconomic Variables in the Russian Economy: Evidence from Statistical Analysis

The Russian Federation, as an energy-oriented and developing country, has suffered a great large-scale damage under the influence of COVID-19. In the economic and political spheres, the Russian government has adopted various strategies to reduce the negative effects exerted by the pandemic. On the other hand, Russia is known as the first country to unveil and offer the first Coronavirus vaccine. At the same time, however, the policies pursued by the Russian government have been criticized. This study tries to measure the impact of the pandemic as an exogenous shock on important Russian economic variables. The main question in this study is what effect has the Corona epidemic had on the Russian economy? To answer to this research question, correlation analysis was used to evaluate the relationship between different variables and the number of deaths because of Coronavirus. According to the results of this study, the Coronavirus has affected the process of all Russian economic variables except for economic growth. This highlights the necessity of the implementation of exact plans and policies to maintain a stable economic recovery in the post-COVID era in this country.