Citizens do not reduce spending – Newspaper Kommersant No. 242 (7443) of 12/28/2022

A joint November study by the Trust Technologies audit and consulting group and the NAFI analytical center revealed some improvement in consumer sentiment (1.6 thousand people participated in the survey). In contrast to May, in November the respondents focused on the stabilization of consumer spending. The share of those who expect their current level of spending to be maintained is gradually increasing for all categories of food and manufactured goods studied (see chart). Particularly noticeable is the trend towards cost stabilization in the segments of health and beauty products, products, goods for repairs and home improvement. At the same time, the share of consumers focused on growth in spending is declining. Significantly – by 15% – the number of respondents who expect an increase in food prices has decreased, while inflation expectations of citizens, according to the Central Bank, remained stably high in December.

The vast majority of consumers have experienced barriers to shopping in the past six months, with 43% saying it happened “often” or “sometimes”. 42% of respondents noted unsatisfactory delivery of goods, 41% – lack of information about it, 34% complained about the quality of service, and 29% could not pay for the goods in a convenient way. “Companies can influence the relevant aspects right now, since they largely depend on the policy of retailers and their willingness to take into account the interests of buyers in Russia,” the authors of the review note.

It should be noted that even against the backdrop of the recovery of unsecured lending that began in the third quarter, household consumption continued to shrink and simplify. CMASF analysts explained this by “a decrease in real incomes of the population, a change in consumer behavior due to the persistence of a high level of uncertainty and a reduction in the usual range of goods.” In the first ten days of November, there was a slight surge in consumer spending, primarily due to the low base effect due to a different regime of non-working days in the comparable period last year, as well as discounts and sales this year. After that, in early December, according to Sberindex data, private consumption (with payment by Sberbank cards) continued to decline rapidly.

Artem Chugunov