Over 80 per cent of Russians economize due to crisis - poll
RIA-Novosti
Moscow, 23 September: More than 80 per cent of Russians are economizing because of the crisis. General director of VTsIOM (All-Russian Centre for the Study of Public Opinion) Valeriy Fedorov announced these results at a RIA Novosti press conference entitled "The crisis outside the capital: what's happening in real Russia?" in Moscow today.
"Answering the question, whether they have begun to economize or not on something in the current conditions, the absolute majority say that they have. Only 16 per cent - perhaps this is happy people or perhaps on the contrary, unhappy people who already have nothing on which to economize - say that they are not economizing. The rest for the most part (48 per cent) say that they have begun to economize on everything, 35 per cent say not on everything but they have begun," Fedorov said, referring to the research conducted by VTsIOM.
The VTsIOM poll was conducted 12-13 September in 140 locations in 42 regions; 1,600 people were surveyed. The margin of error does not exceed 3.4 per cent.
According to Fedorov, the number of those who economize on everything is slowly decreasing: in April there were 58 per cent of them, in May 54 per cent and now 48 per cent. Federov believes that economizing is becoming sensible.
"Economizing is entering a rational phase. It is obvious that it is not possible to save on everything. Sometimes this is simply harmful. For example, you shouldn't economize on your health, on medicines. But when you are in the most acute phase of a crisis, here psychology already joins in, elements of panic and as an immediate reaction, the simplest reaction is to deny yourself everything. Then, when it transpires that the crisis is not a single-stage strike but a state drawn out over time, certain calculations begin, what can be economized on and what cannot," Fedorov said.
