Page 54 - RusRPTSept21

recession as well as in 2019. Including net savings, net household borrowing from banks has increased in recent months. The number of employed returned to almost two years ago in the second quarter.
Wholesale trade has recovered at the pace of 10% more in the second quarter than two years earlier. Construction has clearly increased over the past two years. The volume of freight transport (including pipeline transport of oil, petroleum products and natural gas) grew slightly higher than two years ago.
In the period from August 16 to 22, 2021, the increase in consumer spending in the Russian Federation amounted to 13.2% year-on-year.
According to SberIndex analysts, despite the fact that the presidential payment for schoolchildren has less effect on the growth of total expenses, they returned to the upward trend of May-July. In particular, high demand remained in non-food retail, where the normalized growth rate was + 24.2%.
The SberIndex data indicate that the consumer is in a good condition and that there are no significant problems with final demand. At the same time, additional costs are still concentrated in precisely those categories that previously became the source of the surge in inflation.
Thus, a fairly high demand remains in non-food retail. The normalized growth rate in this segment was + 24.2%. A sharp acceleration of dynamics to the indicated levels occurred in early August, and so far there has been no return to the initial levels.
This is probably a manifestation of a new post-pandemic seasonality, when a massive update of electronics takes place before the school year. Excellent dynamics is observed in the Computers and Software segment (+ 63.4% y/y, which is close to the highs of the year).
In addition, it is in the non-food trade that a significant part of the demand remains, which has moved there from the service sector. This is not so noticeable in the growth rates compared to last year, but it is clearly manifested when compared with pre-pandemic levels.
There was also a high level of spending in the category "Car Dealers and Auto Parts" (+ 22.0% y/y for the second week in a row).
54 RUSSIA Country Report September 2021 www.intellinews.com