Russia: Consumer confidence worsens in Q4

The consumer confidence index published by the Federal Statistics Service (Rosstat) dropped to minus 17 points in the final quarter of 2018, deteriorating from the third quarter’s minus 14 points. The index lies well below the 0-point threshold, indicating that pessimists outnumber optimists in the Russian economy.

Looking at the details, the decline in sentiment was broad-based with consumers’ views deteriorating in most of the survey’s sub-indexes. Households assessed both the current and future economic situation more negatively, as well as their ability to save.

Russia Private Consumption Forecast

FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast panelists expect private consumption to expand 2.0% in 2019, which is down 0.1 percentage points from last month’s projection. For 2020, panelists expect private consumption to increase 2.5%.