29%

of Russians expect the economic situation to deteriorate in the next 12 months. In the previous quarter, the share of negative assessments was only 22%.

This information is presented in a new information and analytical report by the Centre for Business Tendency Studies at the HSE’s Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge (ISSEK). The report, ‘Index of Economic Sentiment in the Third Quarter of 2014,’ is based on a survey of 5,000 Russians age 16 and older (surveys are conducted quarterly by the Russian Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat)).

37% of Russians currently believe that the economic situation will remain the same (in the last quarter, 46% of those surveyed held this view). The proportion of respondents who expect positive changes remained almost at the same level as previously (slightly less than a quarter of those surveyed). As in the last quarter, only half the number of Russians who expressed hope in the country’s overall economic growth expressed similar hope regarding their own personal financial prosperity.