Page 24 - RusRPTMar19

decline of real incomes of Russians. Besides that, the share of online shopping in 2018 grew by 32.2% according to Romir,” Skorokhodov said.
The volume of Russian e-commerce sales was RUB1.5 trillion ($22.8bn) in 2018, according to the estimates by Data Insight cited. Sales in Russian online stores increased by 19% to RUB1.15 trillion and in foreign by 29% to RUB348bn.
Real incomes in Russia fell again slightly in 2018, down for the fifth year in a row.
2.14 Russian business and consumer confidence
Business confidence crashed at the end of 2018, but has improved at the start of 2019. While economic growth has slowed remarkably at the start of this year business people remain remarkably confident about the rest of the year.
Manufacturers and businessmen are a lot more optimistic about 2019, despite a slow start to commercial activity in January. Russia’s manufacturing PMI falls to a five-month low in February, but manufacturers are looking forward to 2019.
Russia’s manufacturing sector failed to pick up any momentum and the IHS Markit manufacturing PMI fell to a five-month low in February of 50.1 in February, down slightly from 50.9 in January and just above the 50.0 no- change mark.
Despite a softer rise in new business and intense inflationary pressures, survey respondents remained upbeat that output levels would improve over the coming 12 months. The degree of confidence was the second-highest since May 2013.
24 RUSSIA Country Report March 2019 www.intellinews.com