Real-time retail consumption tracker: January 30 and February 5, 2023

Consumer spending in Russia added 9.6% y-o-y on January 30 – February 5, 2023, somewhat accelerating w-o-w (+6.7% on January 23–29, 2023).

Consumer spending on products and services accelerated in early February 2023. The latest growth this strong was seen in late June and early July 2022 (June 27 – July 10), when the metric jumped by 10.5%-11.0% y-o-y. This acceleration can be tracked even when compared to January 2023, when consumer spending was relatively high throughout the month, fluctuating between +5.0% and +7.2% w-o-w (+3.6% in December).

Non-food items saw spending up 0.7% between January 20 and February 5. Offline categories were the top performers in terms of growth, which may be due to more clearing sales held after the New Year holiday week. Clothing, Footwear, and Accessories lost 6.0% (-15.6% to -12.0% in January 2023), Beauty and Health Products lost 0.5% y-o-y (-5.1% to -8.2% in January 2023), whereas in department stores spending soared by 38.3% y-o-y (31.8% to 36.3% in January 2023).

Higher spending was also registered in the Food Products category, which added 11.5% in the past week (6.9% to 10.3% y-o-y in January).

The demand for services looked pretty strong, too, adding 17.2% y-o-y between January 30 and February 5. Most categories of services saw accelerated spending: Cafés, Bars, and Restaurants added 23.2% y-o-y (19.2% to 22.6% y-o-y in January), while Railway Tickets soared by 67.3% y-o-y (-3.8% to 59.8% y-o-y in January).