Instability of socio-economic and sustainable development of Ural regions

Problems of development stability of regional economies are of particular importance in current conditions. The article presents the analysis of the sustainability of the development of Russian regions included in one of the most industrially developed federal districts - the Ural. The study used data from Rosstat for 2001-2019. The tendencies of the instability of indicators of socio-economic development of regions are revealed: gross regional product, investments in fixed assets, industrial production, and consumer prices. It has been established that the dynamics of the growth rates of these indicators are volatile. At the same time, all trends demonstrate a reasonably rapid recovery after the external shocks of 2008 and 2014. These indicators’ volatility was assessed using the variation coefficient in three different periods: 2001-2008, 2010-2014, and 2015-2019. The conclusion is made about the high instability of regional socio-economic development, while the level of instability in regions with a lower level of development turned out to be higher than in more developed ones. Particular attention is paid to trends in the level of instability, and it is noted that over time, less developed regions increase instability at a faster pace