Every fifth Russian who noticed an increase in prices for goods and services blame sanctions for that.
MOSCOW, September 23, 2014. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the information concerning whether Russians noticed an increase in prices over the recent months; and what it was caused by.
A relative majority of respondents (45%) buys products and keep house on their own; they are basically women rather than men (64% vs 21%), and elderly respondents rather than persons aged 18-24 (54% vs 26%). More than one-third of respondents (37%) report to do these activities along with other members of family. Every fifth (18%) has never done anything like this.
Those respondents who do grocery shopping themselves say that over the recent one or two months prices for meat have increased 85% (55% of them notice substantial increase; 30% - slight increase). Every tenth (11%) says that meat products have not risen in price; only 2% even mentioned a decline in price.
Three-thirds of respondents who keep house on their own (77%) report that utility bills have increased. Other 77% report high dairy products` prices. Sixty-eight percent of Russians noticed an increase in prices for fruits and vegetables; 20% report no changes. Gasoline prices have increased according to 60% of Russians (34% - big increase; 26% - slight increase). Sixty percent say that bread price has increased (slightly - 42%; considerably - 18%); one-third of respondents (36%) say that pastry prices have not changed.
Every fifth Russian (21%) is confident that the increase in prices is due to measures against Russia and Russia`s retaliatory measures. One-tenth of respondents (10%) believe that it deals with the situation in Ukraine; 9% blame inflation; 7% accuse resellers; 3% consider that this is due to the general political situation in the world.
The VCIOM opinion poll was conducted on September 13-14, 2014. 1600 respondents were interviewed in 130 communities in 42 regions of Russia. Data are weighted by gender, age, education, working status and type of settlement. The margin of error does not exceed 3.4%.
Who usually does the grocery shopping and keeps house in your family? (closed-ended question, one answer) | |||
| Total respondents | Men | Women |
Mainly me | 45 | 21 | 64 |
Me along with other family members | 37 | 47 | 28 |
Other family member, not me | 18 | 31 | 7 |
Don`t know | 1 | 1 | 1 |
How would you assess the increase in prices for the following products over the recent one or two months? (closed-ended question, one answer per each category of goods, % of those who buy products on his/her own) | ||||||
| Prices have considerably decreased | Prices have decreased but not substantially | Prices have not changed | Prices have increased but not considerably | Prices have considerably increased | Don`t know |
Meat products | 1 | 1 | 11 | 30 | 55 | 2 |
Utility bills | 1 | 1 | 17 | 39 | 38 | 4 |
Dairy products | 1 | 1 | 18 | 43 | 34 | 3 |
Fruits , vegetables | 1 | 5 | 20 | 39 | 29 | 6 |
Gasoline | 1 | 1 | 9 | 26 | 34 | 29 |
Bread, pastry | 1 | 1 | 36 | 42 | 18 | 2 |
If you noticed any increase in prices, what it was caused by? (open-ended question, any number of answers, % of those who buy products on his/her own) | |
| Total respondents |
Sanctions against Russia and Russia’s retaliatory measures | 21 |
Developments in Ukraine | 10 |
Inflation | 9 |
Entrepreneurs and resellers artificially increase prices | 7 |
Spending budget money on refugees and humanitarian aid for Ukraine | 4 |
Prices increase every year | 4 |
Political situation worldwide | 3 |
Spending budget money for Crimea | 2 |
Government does not control prices | 2 |
Gasoline price increase | 2 |
Corruption, bureaucracy | 2 |
Unstable economic situation, crisis | 2 |
Fall of ruble, increase of dollar and euro | 2 |
Wrong policies of authorities | 2 |
Prices always increase in autumn | 1 |
Spending for the Sochi Olympic Games | 1 |
Stagnation in agricultural and industrial sectors | 1 |
Lack of competitiveness (monopoly) | <1 |
Other | 3 |
Don`t know | 29 |
Note: Using materials from the site www.wciom.ru or wciom.com, as well as distributed by VCIOM, the reference to the source (or hyperlink for the electronic media) is obligatory!