Russian Railways cargo volumes keep falling, data shows

MOSCOW, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Cargo volumes handled by state-owned Russian Railways continued to fall in November, data showed on Monday, as the country's biggest commercial employer grapples with mounting financial problems.

November cargo loading fell 1.5% year-on-year to 94.2 million tonnes and January-November volumes dropped by 5.6% to 1.021 trillion tonnes, Russian Railways said in a statement.

The Russian government is discussing different ways to prop up Russian Railways, which has amassed a 4 trillion rouble ($50.8 billion) debt pile.

Railway cargo volumes, considered an important economic indicator for the health of Russia's export-driven economy, hit a 15-year low in 2024 and kept falling in 2025 due to a slowdown in Russia's war economy and global market conditions.

VTB CEO Andrei Kostin told Reuters in an interview that Russian banks are ready to restructure some of Russian Railways' debt as long as the central bank does not increase reserve requirements for these loans.

(Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov; Editing by Andrew Osborn)