Russians buy more mobile phones and less outerwear

UFA, 12 April 2017. /Bashinform News Agency, Alim Faizov/. A new trend has emerged in the non-food sectors of the Russian consumer market: sales of electronics - mobile phones, monitors, computers - are on the rise, and sales of outerwear, footwear, fabrics and linen are declining. This is reported by Izvestiya with reference to the specialists of the Institute for Social Analysis and Forecasting of the Russian Academy of National Economy and Civil Service (RANEPA). Experts explain the trend by a decline in prices for gadgets and emergence of skills to buy good clothes, which serve more than one season.

In 2016, among non-food items, the sales of mobile phones (+ 20.1 percent), monitors (+16.9) and computers in full configuration (+9.7) increased as compared to the previous year, according to the monitoring data of the RANEPA. In most commodity groups, there was still a decline in sales. So, last year sales of outerwear (-14.4 percent), leather footwear (-11.2), fabrics (-8.2), underwear (-7.3) and hosiery (- 5.9) decreased considerably. Sales of dishes, cutlery, newspapers and magazines decreased by 11-12 percent. Tobacco sales dropped by 7 percent.

A slight increase occurred in sales of diesel fuel (+3 percent), auto parts (+1.1), TVs (+1.3), pharmaceutical, medical and orthopedic goods (+2.8), including medications (+1, 2).