Economics
Russia Sees Biggest Decline in Wages, Retail Sales Since 1999
Road traffic forms congestion on a highway beside the Moskva river and Kremlin in Moscow, Russia.
Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Russian wages and retail sales declined by the most since 1999, a sign consumer demand will remain a weak link in the economy’s efforts to break out of its first recession in six years.
Real wages fell 10.9 percent in October from a year earlier, a deeper contraction than the median estimate by economists for a 9.7 percent decrease, the Federal Statistics Service in Moscow said Thursday in a statement. The office revised down September’s wages contraction to 10.4 percent. Sales declined 11.7 percent from a year earlier after shrinking 10.4 percent the previous month. That compared with forecast of a 10 percent drop.