1. Oil and gas proceeds fund more than one-third of the entire Russian federal budget.
Russia produces 12% of the world’s oil. Its economy is strongly dependent on its publicly owned oil and gas sector — which employs about 2.5 million people, and generates an average of $191 million in revenue every day for the Kremlin.
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The U.S. trade deficit continued to grow in January as the import-export gap widened to a record high, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The trade deficit reached $89.7 billion in January, up $7.7 billion from December 2021’s $82 billion figure, the Census Bureau announced Tuesday. Economists surveyed by the WSJ predicted a January trade deficit figure of just $87.2 billion.
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