OREANDA-NEWS  The book market in Russia by the end of 2023 will grow by 6.65% in monetary terms and will decrease by 9.07% in copies, according to the Ministry of Finance. The situation has developed due to the rise in price of books, a decrease in the purchasing power of the population and the growth of piracy, experts believe. Traffic on pirated e-book resources has already grown by 20%, publishers emphasize.

Kommersant got acquainted with the annual industry report of the Ministry of Finance on the state of the book market by the end of 2022 and the prospects for its development. It follows from the document that by the end of 2023, the market will grow by 6.65% in money, and in physical terms it will decrease by 9.07% (absolute figures are not given).

In 2022, according to the Ministry of Finance, the market volume increased by 7.1%, to 101.6 billion rubles, of which the turnover of printed books increased by 7.5% year-on-year, to 90.7 billion rubles.

The report notes that bookstores are still the main sales channel. So, in 2022, they accounted for 53% of sales (about 40 billion rubles), while online stores accounted for about 43% (about 32 billion rubles).

The leading bookselling network in terms of the number of outlets, according to published data, remains "Read-the city — the Book—eater" (700 stores in January 2023, 723 - in February 2022). Earlier, the network reported that they plan to open another 20-30 stores by the end of 2023 (see Kommersant on June 22). In second place is the "Book Maze", in January the network had 103 points, in February 2022 — 91. The Moscow House of Books closes the top three, in January the chain opened 17 stores, in February 2022 — 19. The report clarifies that the number of bookstores in recent years has remained "relatively stable" precisely due to the opening of new "Read-the city — the Book-Eater" stores.