Retail sales rose for the first time in a year in January as slowing inflation and higher wages boosted household spending, the State Statistics Service said Thursday.
Sales rose an annual 0.3 percent after a 3.6 percent drop in December, the service said. The median forecast of seven economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for a decline of 1.3 percent. Sales fell 22.6 percent from December, the month of holiday purchases. Real wages advanced an annual 2.6 percent.
“We see the basis for stable growth in the retail sector this year,” Maxim Oreshkin, head of research at Rosbank in Moscow, said before the figures were released. “Incomes are growing.”
Consumer spending is set to boost Russia’s recovery with gross domestic product expanding 3.1 percent this year, according to government estimates. Renaissance Capital forecasts 7.4 percent growth in the first quarter.
Retail sales may rise 3.3 percent in 2010 as inflation slows to between 6.5 percent and 7.5 percent and disposable incomes gain 3 percent, the government said Dec. 30. Inflation slowed to an annual 8 percent in January, the lowest level since 2007, and disposable incomes jumped 7.1 percent. The average monthly wage reached 19,060 rubles ($632.87), a 10.8 percent increase from last January.
Sales at Magnit increased 25 percent in January as it added 19 stores. Food, beverages and tobacco products accounted for 49 percent of all retail sales, according to the statistics office.
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