Inflation Is Most Worrying Problem for Russians – Poll

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – February 2, 2016)

The number of Russians that consider high inflation one of the country’s biggest problems increased sharply in January, a survey by state-run pollster VTsIOM revealed Tuesday.

Twelve percent of Russians were concerned about rising prices in December, but in January that number jumped to 20 percent, according to the poll.

Other problems that top the list of country’s most pressing issues are the economy and low salaries, the poll showed. These issues were mentioned by 23 and 13 percent of respondents respectively.

Another 12 percent of respondents said they were concerned about unemployment.

Russia’s economy has been suffering a slowdown, aggravated by the sanctions imposed by Western countries in 2014 over Moscow’s actions in eastern Ukraine and falling global oil prices.

As a result, prices in Russia were 12.9 percent higher last year compared to 2014 and an average Russian saw their wages shrink 9.5 percent, according to data from the Rosstat state statistics service.

VTsIOM’s poll was conducted on Jan. 23-34 among 1,600 people in 46 Russia’s regions. The margin of error did not exceed 3.5 percent.