Page 38 - RusRPTNov18

Pensioners' wages much lower than national average. Sberbank studied the data of its retirement-age clients, revealing that the salary of a working pensioner is roughly a quarter lower than the national average. A pay gap of 24% when pensions are subtracted from pensioners' earnings points to a productivity problem for the Russian economy as it adjusts to pension reform since pensioners make up nearly a tenth of the workforce.
● The average income of Sberbank’s working retirement-age customers is 46,000 rubles ($687). This comprises a 14,000-ruble ($210) pension and an average salary of 32,000 rubles ($479).
● The national average salary of an ordinary employee is 42,000 rubles ($629). Thus, not including pension earnings, working pensioners earn 24% less than younger workers.
● These estimates confirm data from RANEPA: in 2017, 55–64 year-old workers earned 21–27% less than 30–34 year-olds. The pay gap has increased notably since 2005, when 55–59 year-old workers earned only 5% less, and 60–64 year-olds lost out on 11%.
4.5.3 Retail sector dynamics
The most eye-catching print in Rosstat’s first tier data report for September was that the growth in food sales had slowed to zero. However, the downward trend that originated in July is set to reverse in October, we believe. At the same time, backed by consumer electronics, non-food sales continue to soar; we think this was due to household concerns about the potential pass-through effect from both FX weakening and the VAT rate hike. On the labour market front, real wage growth remains robust; however, in the months to come we are likely to see it down, on both the high base effect and accelerating inflation.
Russians forego holidays to buy a better phone this year. In the third quarter of 2018, within MTS Retail, handset sales demonstrated an explosive growth . This was mainly as a result of replacing various loyalty discounts and bonuses by the cashback program. The cashback encouraged
38 RUSSIA Country Report November 2018 www.intellinews.com