Russians Are Still Addicted to Getting Discounts

Russians are still hooked on shopping habits that got them through the country’s worst recession this century as the economy lurches out of recovery and into stagnation.

Consumer demand, which represents over half the economy of the world’s biggest energy exporter, is increasingly a bellwether for what’s to come, remaining sluggish as steady improvements in wages do little to distract from a search for bargains. Sberbank CIB’s latest survey of the typical shopper found that the share of “promo-addicted” Russians was at 60 percent last quarter, only slightly down from the previous three months.