Reportage
Household debt at its highest in Russia
In a supermarket in the Aviapark shopping center in Moscow on March 18, 2022. dpa/picture alliance via Getty I - picture alliance
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
The effect of the sanctions is still not very concretely seen in Russia, but the clouds on the Russian economy are already accumulating.
Household debt reached an all-time high in the first quarter of this year, at 10.6% of the population's disposable income, compared to 10.2% in the same period in 2021. Consumer credit defaults also increased slightly in the spring.
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With our correspondent in Moscow,
Anissa el-Jabri
500,000, 800,000 rubles, or up to 20 times the average salary, is the price of a new car in Russia.
The promise of a very nice vehicle for which upper-middle-class Muscovites are ready to go into debt.
Except that for all the consumer loans taken out, the repayment deadlines now take on a threatening appearance.
Especially for Olga, 33, a dependent child, slipping child support and working in a sector that has been under pressure since the sanctions were put in place.
“
I work in the logistics sector in the railway industry.
Obviously, the atmosphere is a little worrying, because we are encountering certain difficulties related to events taking place in the world and I am rather pessimistic about the future, because I can see in which direction the market is going.
And it will also affect my income.
My salary consists of a base salary and a bonus.
The bonus depends on the objectives set.
And so, lately, my income has gone down.
So far, it's averaged between 20 and 30
% less per month.
I'm not sure what will happen next, but I hope my salary won't go down further.
»
Limit expenses
Like all her indebted friends, and there are many of them, Olga has already begun to limit her expenses: less leisure, less clothes.
The government regularly announces aid, especially to families.
But Olga is not counting on that to make things better: “
I always count only on myself.
I don't know how the state wants to help us, but anyway, I'm not interested.
I know it out of habit, these are just words.
»
►Also read: The ruble is doing well despite the sanctions imposed by the West
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Russia
consumption
Economy