Consumer Plight Has Russia Near Biggest Shift of Putin’s Era

Behind another month of near-record declines in Russian consumer wellbeing is an economic shift that may endure for years.

For those still counting, a slump in real wages probably continued for an eighth month in June, falling off at a pace unseen until recently during President Vladimir Putin’s 15-year reign, a Bloomberg survey showed. Data due this week will also show retail sales fell 8.9 percent from a year earlier, near the worst showing in 2015, according to the median of 19 estimates.