Survey Suggests Russians Have Cut Back Expenses

The St. Petersburg Times

Published: August 29, 2012 (Issue # 1724)

Russians have significantly reduced their living expenses while spending on entertainment has halved, Interfax reported this week, referring to a survey carried out by Romir polling agency.

The survey indicated that during the last six months, Russian people have become less inclined to make large purchases.

When asked about major family expenses during the last six months, a third of respondents indicated clothes as their main expense. This figure was, however, 12 percent less compared to November last year.

The number of people spending large amounts on medicine decreased from 24 percent to 18 percent. People also spend less on home renovation, with 13 percent of respondents citing it as a major expense compared to 18 percent last year.

If in 2011 at least 14 percent of respondents spent a large part of the family budget on entertainment, in 2012 that figure decreased to 7 percent.

At the same time, the poll showed that Russians are not economizing on other sectors such as vacations, car purchase or repair, the purchase of smart phones, computers, home appliances or jewelry.

Eighteen percent of Russians continued to spend large sums of money on vacation compared to 19 percent last year; 12 percent of them still said they saw significant expenses on car repairs while in 2011 that figure was 11 percent.

The poll showed that the most thrifty people represent 24 percent of the population. These people told sociologists that they didn’t spend money on any items listed in the survey.