Russian Retail Sales Slump for Third Month as Wages Plummet

Russian retail sales slumped for a third month and real wages plunged the most since 1999, highlighting the discrepancy between improving markets and the plight of the consumer as the economy enters its first recession in six years.

Wages adjusted for inflation fell 9.3 percent in March from a year earlier after an upwardly revised 7.4 percent drop a month earlier, the Federal Statistics Service in Moscow said in a statement Friday. Retail sales fell 8.7 percent, compared with a revised drop of 7.2 percent in February. The median estimates of economists surveyed by Bloomberg were for decreases of 10.3 percent and 8.6 percent.