Page 40 - bne IntelliNews monthly country report Russia February 2024

4.5.2 Income dynamics
Real wages in Russian are up 7%, and real disposable income increased by 4.4%, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the VTB Investment Forum "Russia Calling!" on December 7.
As the wage growth in Russia showed signs of moderation in September 2023, the analysts surveyed by RBC business portal believe that overheating wage growth peaked, expecting paychecks to continue rising only in the sectors where acute labour shortages persist.
As covered by bne IntelliNews, Russia’s economy shows signs of overheating with unemployment at all-time low of 2.9% and labour shortages amidthe full-scale military invasion of Ukraine pushing the salaries up.
However, real wages’ growth in September 2023 slowed down to 7.2% year-on-year versus 9.5% seen in August. Nominal wages increased by 13.6% versus 15.1% a month earlier.
The analysts believe that employers can simply no longer continue hiking the salaries given the increased cost of money and rising interest rates, high logistics costs, and weak ruble. Increased demand for labour, and therefore high salary offers persist in manufacturing, construction, the IT sector, and logistics.
40 RUSSIA Country Report February 2024 www.intellinews.com