Real-time retail consumption tracker for August 31 – September 6, 2020

Copy-books, pencil boxes, and flowers for teachers are the things Russians spent more this year than last year. Clearly, this is mainly due to the new academic year. In general, between August 31 and September 6 the demand added 3.7% y-o-y. However, about 2 pp of the upsurge can be explained with September 1 being different week days in 2020 and 2019.

The consumer activity index by SberIndex.ru reached 77 out of 100 points, which is even 0.1 points lower w-o-w.

Non-food items added 13.1% y-o-y. Spending is also up for clothing and footwear (+25.5% y-o-y), home appliances and electronics (+32.8% y-o-y), flowers and gifts (+32.7% y-o-y; –23.6% a week before that), and stationery (+14.3% y-o-y from –10.2% a week before).