Big Data convert channels Big Brother to monitor Russia’s pulse

Russia

Raw numbers no longer cut it for Russia’s central bank in its effort to keep up with the economy. 

Instead, the man running its research and forecasting wants to know how Russians really feel by mining “big data,” gathered from social media and online stores. The Bank of Russia has already developed a gauge of economic activity by scouring a news site, according to Alexander Morozov, who’s headed the department for almost two years after a decade as HSBC Holdings Plc’s economist in Moscow.