SERGEY PRIKHODKO: “THERE ARE NO FUNDAMENTAL PREREQUISITES FOR CONSUMER OPTIMISM"

Sberbank analysts have studied the behavior and dynamics of expenses of a typical middle-class Russian representative living in a city with a population of 100.000 or more. According to the study, more than half of Russians did not have outstanding loans in Q 2 and did not economize on visits to cafes and restaurants. On the whole, according to the study, people did not switch to cheaper goods, while their average salary increased by almost Rub 1500 to 40 000.

A share of optimists considering the current economic situation favorable for activating savings increased significantly, i.e. 61% against 48% in the same period of the previous year. Authors of the study note that in Q 2 the Ivanov's Consumer Index was -17%, and this was a good indicator. For comparison, it dropped to -31% in the same period of the previous year at the height of lockdown.

Sergey Prikhodko noted that there are actually no fundamental prerequisites for consumer optimism.

“Being an economist, I don’t see such net figures that would suggest this idea. There is a GDP growth related to the previous year. Actually, we will reach the level of 2019 if accompanied by a combination of luck in H 2, however, again, this is not a kind of further economic growth. As a matter of fact, I am not aware of such indicators that would give grounds to be very happy. However, as for fatigue and psychology ... We also conduct similar studies, our laboratory interviews directors of enterprises, calculating the degree of optimism using a certain formula. Well, it does not look bad now either,” he said.