January sets new consumer price record in Russia
Russians are forced to spend more money on basic consumer goods, foodstuffs in particular. Patchwork Barents presents last month’s consumer price figures.
Consumer prices continue to rise in Russia. In January 2015, consumer prices on all commodiites increased, in average, with four percent across Barents Russia, figures from Rosstat show. In comparison, the previous month’s increase was 2.9 percent.
The inflation is still primarily reflected on foodstuffs, vegetables in particular. In Murmansk Oblast, for example, consumer prices on vegetables like cabbage, carrots and cucumbers increased by respectively 37.85 percent, 16.04 percent and 14.94 percent in January, Murmanskstat reports.
Other important foodstuffs like potatoes, sugar and butter are also becoming more expensive. Prices increased with respectively 19.7 percent, 13.49 percent and 8.1 percent on these food products.
Although prices increased in all five subregions in Barents Russia, there were notable variations between the subregions. As shown by regional figures, consumer prices on fish products illustrate this particularly well. In the Republic of Komi and Murmansk Oblast, prices on fish products went up 8.2 percent and 8.1 percent, respectively. In Arkhangelsk Oblast the equivalent prices went up 6.9 percent, while the Republic of Karelia registered an increase of 2.95 percent. In Nenets the prices on fish products were the most stable, with an increase of only 0.2 percent.
Patchwork Barents keeps a monthly review of regional consumer price indices. The visualization above shows the development of consumer prices since January 2013. As the figure clearly indicates, inflation has left alarming traces on the Russian economy in the course of the last six months, setting a new record in January 2015.
See more consumer price figures on Patchwork Barents.
