88% of Russians say 2020 was harder than 2019 and the worst year since the collapse of the Soviet Union

88% of Russians say 2020 was harder than 2019 and the worst year since the collapse of the Soviet Union

Almost nine out of ten (88%) Russians say that 2020 was harder than 2019 and the worst year since the collapse of the Soviet Union / Levada

By bne IntelliNews December 31, 2020

Almost nine out of ten (88%) Russians say that 2020 was harder than 2019 and the worst year since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, according to a poll by independent pollster the Levada Center that was released on December 29.

“For the first time since 1991, 88% of Russians called the outgoing year more difficult for the country than the previous one,” Levada found. “65% called this year more difficult than the previous one for them and for their families – the highest rate since 1998.”

Battle-weary Russians are used to crises, and the economy had only just emerged from the after-effects of the 2014 oil price shock that saw the ruble more than halve in value at the end of that year.

Economic growth took some three years to recover, with green shoots visible in 2018 and the following year being the first return to some sort of normality.

At the same time, real incomes have been stagnant for some seven years, but started to grow again at the end of 2019 as inflation fell to post-Soviet record lows of circa 2.3%.

But all of that progress was undone in 2020 as a fresh crisis broke, including yet another oil price shock on top of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

#Russia #bneChart

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