OREANDA-NEWS. Sberbank Investment Research, the research department of Sberbank CIB, announces the publication of its fourth survey of the pan-Russian consumer, the Sberbank CIB Ivanov Consumer Confidence Tracker, in bi-monthly publication covering consumer spending, savings and confidence across the country.

Apart from publishing a headline consumer confidence index, this regular, proprietary publication provides a set of leading indicators for the most important trends across the fast-growth consumer sectors in Russia, including retail, banking, telecoms, media, IT, real estate and transportation.

The survey is executed by market research agency Cint on behalf of Sberbank Investment Research and is conducted every two months under a methodology that closely mirrors that of the State Statistics Service’s quarterly survey and EU confidence assessments. However, survey is expanded to encompass a wider set of questions relevant to Russia’s middle-income consumers. The survey sample is 2,300 people, aged 18 to 65 and living in 164 cities with a population of over 100,000 inhabitants. The tracking error is below 2%.

The fourth tracker shows no change in the consumer confidence index, with the overall score staying at –8% in July (after declining from –4% in January 2013 to –8% in March and May 2013). This corresponds with declining unemployment, which is helping to offset rising inflationary concerns.