SOCIO-ECONOMIC SITUATION OF REGIONS IN PANDEMIC CONDITIONS (ON THE EXAMPLE OF PFD REGIONS)

Abstract

The peculiarity of the modern Russian economy is in a greater degree heterogeneous development of its territories. The concept of long-term socio-economic development of the country for the period up to 2020 provided for the achievement of balanced development of regions as a priority direction. The pandemic suspended the growth of the entire world economy; Russia was affected by a sharp decrease in demand for energy sources, which was followed by a decrease in oil prices, budget revenues, worsening the population's economic conditions etc. The relevance and purpose of the article are conditioned by the need to study the impact of the pandemic on the socio-economic situation in the regions of the country. The study used the official data of Rosstat, Ministry of Finance of Russia, RIA Rating agency “Russia Today” for 2018–2019, the first half of 2019 and the first half of 2020. The research used the methods of analysis and synthesis, grouping, comparison, the index method, etc. Three regions of the PFD were chosen as objects of research: the Chuvash Republic, the Republic of Tatarstan and the Republic of Mari El, occupying different ranking positions by the level of social and economic development. The results of the study showed that the impact of the pandemic began in April 2020 and generally affected the indicators of the 1st half of 2020 and will affect the overall perfor-mance of the year. At this, the ranking places of the regions have not changed, and the indi-cators in absolute terms have sharply deteriorated. In the ranking of regions by the quality of life for 2019 the Republic of Tatarstan retained the 4th place, the Republic of Mari El moved from the 66th to the 61st place, the Chuvash Republic – from the 47th to the 44th place. The results of the study can be used in the practical activities of the authorities when carrying out the economic policy at the local level.