By Vestnik Kavkaza
The purchasing power of the population vacillates. It is influenced by demographic factors, changes in the social sphere, not to mention the fact that the cost of goods is significantly affected by the cost of energy - oil, gas - which in turn depends on a number of economic circumstances, both in the country and beyond. In the study of the purchasing power of the population, researchers study the power of different layers and their preferences in the choice of goods and services and estimate the number of certain types of goods purchased for each focus group. Depending on this, the analysts make an assessment of the increase or decrease in purchasing power for goods and services in various industries ranging from consumer goods and ending with the housing market. The purchasing power of money is also not a stable value, especially in recent times. It is influenced by many factors, both internal economic and foreign ones, as well as political events.
Arkady Zlochevsky, president of the Russian Grain Union, explained that “a competitive environment is underdeveloped in the country as a whole, and this, of course, affects pricing. These are administrative costs, which are, at times, ten times more expensive all over the market and for all producers than for our competitors. This is a vector of economic and public policy, which aims to replenish the budget, rather than at the regulation of cross-industry proportions. This is the institution of forming prohibitive cost, it develops from this. This is the level of corruption, of course, that you have to "pay" in the value of the resources, in the value of investment projects, at all "levels" of economic costs. This is the performance of management, which is also insufficient and actually affects the cost of production. Ultimately, this means that the consumer has to pay for all this increased cost of production which we "throw" into the market. The consumer is punished in the first place here.”
According to Zlochevsky, “the consumer is "whipped" by an economic "whip", and he can respond only at the level of purchasing power. And the level of purchasing power is a direct vector of economic development. The lower the purchasing power of the consumer is, consequently, the less the development of the economy is. So we fall.
Answering the question on how it looks in physical terms, Zlochevsky gave an example of pricing of bread: “In 2008, remember, there was the global food crisis, grain prices grew up, which led to the swelling of the price of bread, and they were up for the season by 6 rubles per kilogram, it's just for one year. Then the price level was 26 rubles, that is, it has increased from 20 to 26. This is a price per kilogram of social kinds of bread in 2008. Grain prices then reached 9,5 thousand rubles, it was the peak of 2008.
In 2009, grain prices have fallen to 3 thousand rubles per ton. From 9.5 to 3 thousand, you know. It would seem that the consumer should benefit from it. Just the opposite - the price of bread did not fall by a kopeck. They continued to grow to their current level. The presentation shows the level of price increases for bread, the bread basket. In retail it is up to a 20% increase over the season.
This year we again experienced a peak in grain prices. They reached 11,500 rubles per ton already. But the peak was in February.
At the moment, prices have already fallen to 6.5 thousand rubles per ton, and the price level is below the start of last season, that is, they are less than a year ago. The prices of bread, as we see, are not going to fall. There are rising prices – the cost is now approaching up to 40 rubles per kilo of bread.
All this, of course, is not good for the average consumer. It is clear that there is a narrow layer that can afford such pricing, that is, the level of income allows for such products to be bought. But it is so small in the population of the country as a whole, and for the majority of consumers, of course, this is an extremely painful process. And this painful process with that level of spending of the mass consumer on food destroys almost all the purchasing power of industrial goods, in the industrial sector. This process leads to precisely this effect. Hence, respectively, we can see the engine of the economic development.”
