By Andrei Skvarsky.
A survey by Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, suggests that consumer confidence in Russia has plummeted towards the year-end after being stable from March to September.
The proportion of price-sensitive customers has grown, savings have dwindled, unemployment has edged up, and companies are making fewer hires, according to December’s issue of Sberbank CIB Ivanov Consumer Confidence Tracker, a regular survey by Sberbank CIB, the lender’s investment arm, that monitors nationwide consumer spending, savings and confidence trends among middle-class Russians.
This translated into a decline in monthly nominal incomes to 19,400 rubles in November from 20,300 rubles in September. As a result, the survey’s main indicator, the consumer confidence index, fell to –13% in November after staying flat at –8% from March to September.
The findings of this study echo a recent survey by MNI Indicators, part of Deutsche Boerse, suggesting that business confidence among Russian companies has hit a “record low” towards the end this year.
Sberbank CIB has chosen Ivanov, the commonest Russian family name, as the title of the surveys.