Russians spend it while they’ve got it

Unemployment has been steady at 4.9 per cent – the lowest in Russia for more than a decade – and real wages are rising at 10 per cent each year. While salary growth is starting to slow, there are no signs that consumers are trimming their spending.

“Gold is really expensive right now, the stock market is falling all the time,” says Alexander Prostakov, a 33-year-old advertising copywriter in Moscow. “I think because of this [market uncertainty] people are buying a lot more cars and other things, because no one understands where else you can invest.”