IMF clears $690mn tranche for Ukraine, but the budget still short $20bn this year.
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Russia has overtaken Germany to become Europe's largest beer producer, brewing 9.01bn litres in 2025 against Germany's 7.92bn litres, according to the latest annual report from BarthHaas, the Nuremberg-based hop trader and brewing-industry analyst. The shift puts Russia in fifth place globally, behind only China, the US, Brazil and Mexico.
The rise is largely a product of the war. Cut off from many Western imports by sanctions, Russian brewers have ramped up domestic production every year since the 2022 invasion, while output in Germany slipped as the country's drinking population shrinks.
Producing the most beer is not the same as drinking the most of it. Czechia remains comfortably the world's biggest beer-drinking nation for a 32nd consecutive year, with the average Czech getting through around 150 litres a year — nearly triple the amount consumed per head in either Russia or Germany, according to Statista. Austria, Lithuania and Ireland round out the next places on the podium, the only other countries where per-capita consumption tops 100 litres a year.
Beer remains serious business in Czechia regardless of the global production rankings: state-owned brewer Budweiser Budvar, the country's best-known export, reported a profit of CZK356mn in 2025, IntelliNews reported.
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