Page 21 - RusRPTMay19

from 30% in May 2015. Feelings toward governments were a different matter. Ukrainians remain very negative about Vladimir Putin—69% view the Russian president and his government as bad or very bad, while 85% of Russians expressed a negative attitude about Poroshenko’s administration, according to the poll. Conducted in February, the survey by the Levada Centre in Moscow and the Kyiv Institute of Sociology included 1,600 people in Russia and 2,042 in Ukraine.
The wealthiest 3% of Russians owned 89% of all financial assets in 2018, according to joint research by the Higher School of Economics and the state- run VEB Bank. In March Forbes magazine reported that fewer than 100 Russian billionaires’ combined wealth exceeds the entire population’s bank savings. The share of all financial assets held by the top 3% totalled 89.3% last year despite declining since 2013, Kommersant cited the research as saying. The top 3% owned 92% of all fixed-term deposits and 89% of all cash reserves, it continued. Conversely, the poorest 20% of Russians owned 6% of all financial assets, 4% of fixed-term deposits and 5% of cash reserves in 2018. An estimated 13% of the Russian population lives in extreme poverty by developed-world standards. Russia placed behind all of its Eastern European neighbours last year in an Oxfam aid agency rating of 157 countries’ commitment to reducing poverty. The survey is based on estimates of cash holdings and doesn't take wealth associated with property ownership into account.
The Sberbank CIB Ivanov Consumer Confidence Tracker that monitors the sentiment of “Ivanovs” (Russia’s most popular name) across the country showed a slight 2pp improvement from 4Q18 to 1Q19, but still remained negative at -22%, the bank said on April 10. Towards the end of 2018 Russian consumers have been squeezed between falling real incomes and a high consumer credit burden. The trend continued as in the reporting quarter trading down on food staples reached a record level, while all strategies for saving money became more popular, according to the report by Sberbank CIB. The Ivanovs are visiting more stores in an attempt to find bargains, but price increases have not been smoothed by increased promotional offerings from retailers. The wage growth slowed down to 4.6% y/y among the respondents (versus 6.1% y/y reported by the Rosstat agency), while the savings ratio declined to 6.6%, much below 4Q18 figure of 7.1% and 7.2% in 1Q18). The forward-looking indexes demonstrated better performance, with the country outlook gaining 5pp to -23% and the personal outlook up 4pp to -6%. Sberbank notes that previously negative news flow of the spike in inflation and VAT increase did not materialise and "the recent data is beginning to calm those fears." However, overall, the population's economic concerns did not change much last quarter. Corruption remained at the top of the list, and was cited by a record 66% of respondents, up 3pp q/q. It was followed by unemployment (54%, up 3pp) and inflation (51%, flat). About 37% of Ivanovs were concerned about economic growth, while 20% mentioned the exchange rate as the main concern.
More than half of Russians - 64% - believe that the recently adopted laws on punishment for disrespect for the authorities and for spreading false news are intended to prevent criticism of the authorities. At the same time, 23% of respondents believe that they are needed to ensure the accuracy of news in the media and the Internet, according to the results of a survey by the Levada Center. The laws came into force on March 29.
The influx of migrants to Russia in 2018 fell to its lowest since the fall of
21 RUSSIA Country Report May 2019 www.intellinews.com