Russia: Consumer confidence improves but remains downbeat in Q3
The consumer confidence index, published by the Federal Statistics Service (Rosstat) on 6 October, improved to minus 22 points in the third quarter, from the second quarter’s minus 30 points. That said, Q3’s reading marked the second-worst result in over four years and remained stuck well below the 0-point threshold, where it has been since Q3 2008, signaling that pessimists firmly outnumbered optimists in the Russian economy.
Q3’s partial recovery in consumer sentiment was chiefly driven by the gradual easing of Covid-19-related restrictions. That said, overall economic conditions remained muted in the quarter as the health crisis persisted. Consumers’ views of both the country’s current and future economic situation, and their own current and future economic circumstances, improved somewhat in Q3, although they remained entrenched in negative territory. In a similar fashion, households’ willingness to make big-ticket purchases and the assessment of their ability to save both improved but remained in negative territory in Q3.