Russian citizens are increasingly saving on food and switching to purchases in hard discounters due to the “economic context,” said Ekaterina Lobacheva, president of the X5 Group, the country’s largest retailer, which unites more than 27 thousand stores in all regions, in an interview with “Kommersant”.
“In 2025, the growth of consumption slowed down. Previously, it grew by an average of 6-8%, now the pace has slowed down to 2%. Plus, there is a set of factors that have reinforced the trend. Firstly, it’s the reduction of the population itself, the savings model of consumption, and the high key rate of the Central Bank,” Lobacheva listed.
According to her, a “significant part” of Russians are now forced to repay loans and, because of this, “restrain consumption,” and this, in turn, “is increasingly affecting” food producers. “What is an economic slowdown? If yesterday you were investing in the modernization and expansion of your production, today you will approach this with greater caution. We see that the reduction in production is already happening,” Lobacheva said.
According to data from Sberbank, which tracks card transactions of tens of millions of its customers, the growth of food spending slowed down to 1.5% year-on-year by mid-December – almost 10 times compared to January. In real terms, taking into account inflation, which Rosstat estimates at 5.8% annually, consumer spending began to decline – by more than 5% (The Moscow Times).
