Real-time retail consumption tracker for August 30 - September 05, 2021

Household spending growth added 18.8% between August 30 and September 5, 2021 (up from +12.8% y-o-y a week before that). SberIndex analysts claim this has to do with the lump-sum payments to pensioners, which contributed over 5 pp to the metric. Non-food retail remains the core spending category (+25.5% y-o-y).

Sber secured lump-sum payments to all of its clients receiving money from the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation. This payment was one of the biggest ones on record for the bank in terms of the total value, the number of recipients, and in terms of the timeframe. In addition to the stimulus checks, Sber had prepared gifts and discounts on services of ecosystem companies for the recipients of payments.

According to SberIndex, household demand grew at a rate of 15.7% y-o-y in August.

By applying the methodology aligned with the Russian statistical agency Rosstat, the estimate of spending on goods and services reached RUB 4.465 tn (+14.1% y-o-y) in August. Broken down by categories, spending reached:

• RUB 1.521 tn (+9.2% y-o-y) on food items
• RUB 1.866 tn (+16.0% y-o-y) on non-food items
• RUB 179.9 bn (+37.0% y-o-y) on catering
• RUB 898.7 bn (+15.1% y-o-y) on paid services.

The consumer activity index remains high. Over the week, it surpassed the 80 points mark.

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