Real incomes of Russians collapsed in the second quarter of 2020

On average, 145 million people during this period lived on 35,043 rubles per month ($ 14 per day). As a result, since the beginning of the year, citizens have lost 4.3% of the amount remaining in their hands after making all mandatory payments and inflation.

Finanz.ru notes that the second quarter saw a record decline since the 1990s. Millions of people were left without a job as a result of the non-working week regime introduced. Moreover, the disastrous result turned out to be even worse than Rosstat had expected. According to analysts, the decline should have been at the level of 8%, but turned out to be at the level of 8.4%. This compares to the post-Crimean period, when Russians cut their incomes by 8.3%.

If we recalculate the interest on money, it turns out that Russian consumers lose about 2 trillion rubles of purchasing power. This is how Georgy Ostapkovich, head of the HSE Center for Business Studies, assessed the situation.

Moreover, even those who have passed the loss of a job or income lose money. Romir has calculated that the stocks of free money in Russian households in the period April-September fell by almost half.

In quarantine, consumers were able to save money, and in April relative to March, the index of "free money" increased by 46%. However, as soon as the stores started working again, this stock was completely used up. Moreover, according to the HSE, 90% of Russians no longer expect an improvement in their financial situation.

Moreover, the VTsIOM poll showed that more than half of Russians are sure that the crisis is still ahead. Only 15% of the Russians surveyed consider the financial situation in the family to be good, more than half of the respondents (60%) call it average.

Earlier it was noted that in September 2020, compared to August, the number of companies cutting staff doubled (from 7% to 14% in the country as a whole). This indicates that the number of unemployed will increase. Unemployment in Russia continues to rise. At the peak of the spread of the epidemic in the second quarter, the number of officially registered unemployed in the country reached 9.3 million , which is about 12% of the total working age population. The unemployed were promised increased payments, but in September the Ministry of Labor had already run out of money for this.