“Inflation is developing significantly higher than the October forecast of the Bank of Russia,” the financial regulator said in its release, informing about the increase in the key rate. “Demand expansion continues to outstrip output growth opportunities. The rapid growth of economic activity with limited available labor resources increases inflationary pressure. The conjuncture of world commodity markets remains pro-inflationary. Inflation expectations are not decreasing yet, remaining at multi-year highs. Under these conditions, the balance of risks for inflation shifted even more towards pro-inflationary ones. The monetary policy pursued by the Bank of Russia is aimed at bringing inflation back to four percent.”
Translated into Russian, prices are rising faster than the financial authorities could imagine. And the reasons range from «recovery of economic activity» to «problems in world markets.» The most painful is the rise in food prices — from trendy vegetarian products to the usual «cereals and potatoes.» Food in Russia is very expensive in relation to wages, on average, people spend more than a third of their earnings on food.
But it's not just food that's getting more expensive. Read about how and where price tags are rewritten in the selection of Novaya Gazeta. There is only one answer — when it will end. And people are waiting for further price increases — the Central Bank is absolutely right about this.
Dmitry Prokofiev, Novaya
Saratov
stock up on potatoes»
Shine and poverty of an urban hipster
According to official statistics, Saratov residents spend 38.3 percent of their income on food — 14.4 thousand rubles per person per month. The increase in food prices, which has been going on for many months in a row, has become noticeable not only for pensioners and large families, but also for the middle class. Successful young professionals are forced to abandon healthy eating, fitness and return to their roots: stocking potatoes and cereals.
«You won't use my last name, will you?» Then I’ll tell my hipster story about the “avocado toast index,” says Maria from Saratov (in a region where the average salary barely exceeds 30 thousand rubles, not every hipster will dare to admit to eating exotic fruits).
“Products for such a toast have risen in price very much. Whole grain bread costs more than 100 rubles for a package of 12 slices. Curd cheese for a month and a half rose in price from 89 to 96 rubles per 140 grams. Avocados at Vkusville are too expensive, but you can buy them at Pyaterochka if you know how to bring them to maturity — 29–36 rubles per 100 grams. A poached egg is placed on top of the toast, prices for eggs, fortunately, have stabilized around 55–60 rubles, and then a slice of fish. Now that's real luxury. I stopped eating fish. I go to a fish store like a museum: the view is breathtaking, but you can’t afford almost anything, ”Maria throws up her hands.
Due to the increase in the price of greens and off-season vegetables, the girl refused a few more elements of the “luxury of life” — she stopped buying salad mixes with celery and arugula, greenhouse tomatoes and cucumbers. Judging by the information of Rospotrebnadzor, not only Maria donated natural vitamins. As stated on the website of the regional department, Saratov residents eat too little fresh vegetables, fruits and berries — the consumption of these products is «at the lower limit of the physiological norm.»
Photo: Alexander Artemenkov/TASS
According to Maria's observations, coffee and chocolate have risen in price by 15 percent since December. The price of a box of pasteurized milk has increased from 82 to 99 rubles. “It costs more than vegetable food, although vegetarian food has always been more expensive,” the interlocutor notes.
“According to the recommendations of doctors, I am forced to periodically refuse certain products, but protein is necessary, so my main food is chicken breast. Fillet has risen in price from 255 to 350 rubles. I had to switch to chicken carcasses.”
Maria compares product prices in a mobile app. He notes that a 450-gram pack of Saratov sausages in different networks costs from 189 to 333 rubles. “Usually I use the delivery service, because I'm scared of stores where there are a lot of people and everyone is angry. But my mother goes to Pobeda and looks for something beautiful there, for example, tomatoes for 90 rubles instead of the usual 170. My last frontier, fortunately not yet taken, is the Svetofor store. One of my friends is already shopping there and sends me comforting messages: “Your cereal bars are also in the Traffic Light.”
The increase in the price of the borscht set did not touch Masha: she does not cook soups, as the young spouses dine outside the house. “But this year there was a feeling: I had to stock up on potatoes,” the girl sighs.
In the kitchen, Masha has a special cupboard for supplies. “There I store sunflower oil and cereals. The price of oil keeps going up. I usually buy four bottles at once. I rarely fry in oil, the supply lasts for a long time, but after four bottles they still run out after four months, I go for new ones and go nuts: the price has increased by 20-30 rubles, and the bottle is less. The situation is the same with buckwheat: in two years, packages have decreased from a kilogram to 800 grams.”
Maria has retained the ability to stock up on food since childhood. In the 1990s, her family was forced to move from Kazakhstan, where nationalist sentiment intensified, to a village in the Saratov region, then to the working-class outskirts of the city. “Many people with higher mathematical and engineering education became shuttle traders, my mother is no exception. I helped her at the market, during the holidays I myself stood at the point and sold jeans, ”recalls Masha. — In our rented house there was a beautiful old chest of drawers with many shelves. Mom hid food in it that she wanted to save for the holiday table. When we moved, we found in this chest of drawers a box of “Swallow” sweets, which my mother hid many years ago and forgot.”
Masha and her husband live in a mortgage odnushka. “Seven years ago we bought this apartment for 1.2 million rubles. Now similar costs 3.5 million. In five years we will close the mortgage and would like to think about expanding. But how to buy a kopeck piece, I'll never know. Prices have rushed into space!”
According to official statistics, in 2021, the cost of housing on the secondary market in Saratov increased by 24.1 percent (on average in Russia — by 19.2 percent). A square meter in a new building has risen in price by 33.6 percent. According to the estimates of the Institute for the Development of the Construction Industry, the volume of construction in the region fell by a third over the year. The number of issued mortgage loans decreased by 9.5 percent.
According to Rosstat, the Saratov region ranks fourth in the Volga region in terms of gasoline prices. Not surprisingly, the cost of travel for all modes of transport is rising. “Taxi prices rose by 20-25 percent in autumn, and in winter they became simply unrealistic. Usually I drove from home to work for 180 rubles, on days of heavy snowfalls taxi drivers ask for 450-500 rubles! Psychologists teach you to love yourself and appreciate your comfort, but in this case, I love myself in the trolley bus too,” Maria laughs.
The young family has optimized spending on entertainment. “A gym membership has risen in price by 30 percent. I didn't buy a card. Eyebrows have risen in price: before, the correction cost 600 rubles, now it is 650. There is a cinema in the neighboring shopping center, where there were always inexpensive tickets for 150 rubles. Now the price starts from 250, for premieres it reaches 410. It is more profitable to wait a week and watch the same «Matrix» at home by subscription for 500 rubles. The Internet, by the way, also became very expensive. Our package — TV, Internet, SIM card — used to cost 650 rubles, now it's 900,” Maria calculates.
As Masha clarifies, the rise in prices for everything is especially depressing in a situation of general uncertainty. “Now it’s not at all clear what will happen tomorrow with work, with the ruble, with the bank and with you. Once — and you have covid! You don’t work for two weeks, you spend 2,200 rubles on tests and 1,500 rubles on vitamins. There are terrible queues in the free clinic, and the price of my doctor's paid appointment has risen by 200 rubles. In such circumstances, it is not enough to have an airbag, you need to put on airbags.»
Nadezhda Andreeva, «New»
Photo: RIA Novosti
Murmansk
Deputy noodles
The MP advised people to look for cheap pasta on the Internet
The vice-speaker of the Murmansk Regional Duma, Yevgeny Nikora, took 30 seconds to achieve fame by writing a reply to a Facebook subscriber. Nikora advised a man who complained about the rise in prices to buy pasta on OZON — it's cheaper there.
The life of a deputy is hard: you want to enter into a discussion, but you enter into shit. Still, they remember Natalia Sokolova, the ex-Minister of Labor of the Saratov Region, a major expert on the prices of pasta. Sokolova then lost her position. And it's not about pasta: she remembered about them, arguing the thesis that 3,500 rubles a month for a pensioner is enough to not only survive, but also become «younger, more beautiful and slimmer.» It was in 2018.
Apparently, pasta is another Russian staple. Four years later, the forgotten meme sparkled with new colors: a Murmansk resident posted on Facebook a photo of a pack of the most ordinary pasta with a price tag of 99.99 rubles per pack weighing 450 grams. And he accompanied it with a signature: if such prices are in Magnit, then isn’t it time for the FAS to visit there. The vice-speaker of the Duma Nikora wrote in response (the comment is not available now, the screenshot is in the editorial office): “I recommend finding this pasta cheaper. For example, today they cost 68 rubles on OZON.” The deputy added that the network does not dominate the region's market, and therefore the FAS is unlikely to find violations in pricing.
Subsequently, Nikora had to make excuses that, they say, he didn’t send a person to the Internet, but advised him to look for where it’s cheaper, “I do it myself.” Nikora is a newly elected deputy, however, judging by last year's declarations of the vice-speakers of the regional parliament, the salary for this position exceeds 300,000 per month. Therefore, the picture of Nikora prowling in search of cheap pasta does not look very convincing.
Pasta glory caught up with Evgeny Viktorovich at the same time as another report on price increases: Murmanskstat published the results of monitoring retail chains. Judging by them, vegetables and cereals managed to rise in price in early February.
Carrots (more than 46 rubles per kilogram), cabbage (61 rubles), buckwheat (167 rubles per kilogram pack) grew the most. The cheapest butter is sold at 929 rubles per kilogram, a dozen eggs — at 95 rubles. A kilogram of vermicelli (hello Nikora!) costs 139 rubles, a kilogram of apples — 118, a bottle of vegetable oil — 133, a carton of milk — 97. Beef stays at a little over 500 rubles per kilogram, pork — more than 350, chicken — 195.
Prices for rental housing have also grown: over the year they have risen by almost a quarter, now a one-room apartment in Murmansk is rented at Moscow prices: 25–30 thousand rubles.
Tatyana Britskaya , «New»