Households’ Incomes, Wages and Consumer Demand in January-September 2018

Olga Izryadnova – Head of Structural Policy Department of the Gaidar Institute; Leading Research fellow of the Macroeconomic Research Department, Institute for Applied Economic Studies, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. Е-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

In Q3 2018, the macroeconomic situation was characterized by slowdown of GDP growth rates to 1.3% as compared to the same period of the previous year, while in Q2 2018 the relevant index was equal to 1.9%. In January-September 2018, a 8.4% growth in real wages as compared to the relevant index a year before offset negative dynamics of other income sources and brought about stabilization of real disposable cash incomes at the level of January-September 2017.

In Q3 2018, quarterly dynamics of the retail trade volume and paid services to households saw slowdown of growth rates and were accompanied by a growing inflationary pressure. A reduction of households’ real incomes in August-September 2018 amid their increased rate of borrowings cannot but cause some concern.

Key words: households’ incomes, income source, wages, savings, consumer demand, number of the employed and the rate of unemployment.