Page 16 - RusRPTApr19

the index was established in 2014.
Malls are having to make more of an effort to attract customers, using events and targeting families with offers of childcare and entertainment to pull the punters in. Having picked the US Thanksgiving “Black Friday” idea, in Moscow this was extended to “Black December” with a whole month of discounts and specials, that lifted traffic somewhat. But overall the Watcom Shopping Index in 2018 was down by 5.2% compared to 2017.
In the first week of this year the index, which uses mall’s security cameras to count the number of visitors in real time, was 476, slightly down from 2018 and 2017 (495, 496) but well down on the numbers of visitors in 2014 and 2015 (665, 608).
Traffic in the malls is traditionally very weak in January as Russians enjoy a holiday season that runs until January 14 when they celebrate “Old New Year” according to the Gregorian calendar, which is used to calculate religious holidays. As the Watcom index shows shopping picks up again as Russia moves into a series of spring holidays, including Maslenitsa (“Butter/Pancake week”, or the spring rites of Shrovetide), International Woman’s Day (March 8), the long May Day holidays (May 1-8) and Orthodox Easter, a moveable feast.
2.12 Russian business and consumer confidence
Russian President Vladimir Putin is right to be concerned about rising discontent amongst ordinary Russians, but business has become a little more confident.
In the last month business confidence remained flat adding another month at - 2% -- its best level in over a year and the index has been steady at this level for three months in a row.
Manufacturers and businesspeople, appear to be more optimistic about 2019, despite a slow start to commercial activity in January, according to Russia’s manufacturing PMI panellists.
16 RUSSIA Country Report April 2019 www.intellinews.com