MOSCOW, January 30, 2008 Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents information on whether Russians had to deny themselves buying services or things this year due to the lack of money; whether they can afford using paid educational and medical services; what share expenses on food and payments for public utilities constitute in the general family income; whether the possibilities to save up have changed.

Half of Russians (51%) this year had to deny themselves quality leisure due to lack of money; moreover, one third of respondents had to save on medical treatment and restoring their health (31%), going to the cinema, theatre and other places of entertainment (30%), 14% denied themselves receiving guests or visiting friends or relatives. The share of respondents who have to deal with self-restraints like that has remained practically unchanged within the last three years.

What has considerably reduced over this period of time is the share of respondents who had to deny themselves buying household articles (from 40% down to 32%), clothes, shoes (from 42% to 31%), visits to the relatives and friends (from 4% to 27%); buying the necessary food products (from 20% to 16%), paying for the educational services for the children (from 14% down to 9%) and adult family members (from 13% down to 8%).

The share of Russians who cannot afford to pay educational services has reduced (from 55% to 44%), as well as the portion of those who cannot pay for medical services (from 38% to 34%, although this index did not change as significantly as the first one). At the same time, the number of those who can now use paid medical and educational services in case of emergency has increased (from 37% to 46% and from 21% to 30% respectively). 18% of Russians can afford to systematically pay for these services.

41% have to give out 50-74% of their general family budget on food products, whereas 35% of respondents only spend 25-49% of their family budget on food. Cases when respondents give out less than 25% of their monthly income (7%) or over 75% of it (10% of respondents) are much rarer. The tendency that the share of Russians whose expenditures on food exceed half of their family budget is being reduced, that has marked 2005-2006, did not receive any continuation in 2007.

Expenditures on public utilities are, as a rule, smaller than those on food. At the same time, expenditures on public utilities have on the whole decreased within these three years, as the share of those who give out more than half of their family budget to pay them, has fallen (from 21% down to 10%) and the portion of those who spend less than 25% of their family budget on them has increased (from 31% up to 40%). The share of respondents who give out 25-49% on public utilities remains stable (43-44%). People living in Moscow and St. Petersburg seem to be the most content in this respect: 63% of them spend less than a quarter of their family budget on public utilities.

The initiative opinion poll was conducted by VCIOM on January 26-27, 2007. 1600 respondents were interviewed in 153 population areas of 46 regions of Russia. The statistical error does not exceed 3.4%.