Clients of Russian banks experienced the worst inflationary shock in 4 years

According to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation in an officially published review, Russians estimate the current inflation rate 2.6 times higher than the official statistics record - at the level of 14.5%.

Such a strong inflationary feeling among the country's residents was provoked by a threefold acceleration in the growth of food prices and a new wave of the ruble's fall. All this together caused a real "inflationary" shock in the minds of Russian consumers.

As follows from the results of a monthly survey conducted by InFOM for the Central Bank, by the end of the year, Russians predict inflation of 11.9%, which is twice as high as the Central Bank officially admits now (5.5% in mid-April).

"At the same time, every seventh - 13.8% - said that prices are growing by 30% and more, although a year ago there were only 3.4%", - notes finanz.ru.

The poorer people are, the higher the level of their anxiety about the rate of price growth, the Central Bank notes. It is those Russians who do not have savings who more often than others complain about uncertainty about the future against the background of rapidly changing price tags in stores, including those for priority goods, food and gasoline, as well as in connection with the repeated weakening of the ruble that occurred at the end March - early April. According to the results of the survey, the speed with which inflation expectations soared among consumers turned out to be a record since the end of 2014. Among the poorest Russians, the observed inflation rate has exceeded 16%, and inflation expectations - above 12%.

Even Rosstat, which is distinguished by very restrained estimates of changes in key economic indicators, reported that by the end of March, the rise in food prices in Russia had accelerated to 8.25%. This figure is almost 4 times higher than the annual data. Most of all, since January, the price has risen for chicken (14.2%), eggs (7.4%), meat (6%). In general, over the past pandemic year, the space takeoff was shown by prices for sugar (58%), cereals (20%), sunflower oil (26%), vegetables and fruits (14.9%).

Panic expectations of inflation are forcing people to rapidly spend all their savings, investing them in expensive household appliances, cars and real estate. The number of Russians saving free money fell from 59% to 51%, while the share of those seeking to spend their savings on expensive goods, on the contrary, increased by 5 percentage points - to 28%.

“The share of respondents who prefer to save free money was last at such a low level in December 2015 - January 2016”, - the Central Bank said.