Sberbank of Russia : SberIndex on ‘corona year’ results

SberIndex has summed up the 2020 year results and analyzed the key trends in consumption, economy, and finance. The COVID-19 pandemic emerged as the event that defined the year. According to Sber estimates, by the end of December as many as 16.6 million Russians or 11.3% of the country's population will have gone through the novel coronavirus.

The consumption sector has shrunk 5.8% y-o-y amid lower consumption of services. Gross payrolls will go up 4.5% y-o-y in 2020, while real wages will stay flat.

About 6% of the corporate turnover might have joined the informal economy.

The Bank of Russia cutting its interest rate amid the crisis has spurred lending without having a bearing on inflation.

Government stimulus programs have helped SMEs a lot and revived the housing market.

All mortgage records will be broken in 2020. The number of home loans will stand 40% above the previous all-time-high; the average mortgage rate fell to 7.3% by December. Consumers have gained from the lower mortgage rates twice as much as compared to the rise in real estate prices that offset the rate decline.

People's interest in financial markets has been climbing for two years in a row amid low rates. The number of individuals using brokerage services is nearing eight million people.

When publishing the materials, a reference to SberIndex (www.sberindex.ru) is mandatory.

SberIndex.ru is an analytical website by Sberbank that illustrates how life in Russia has changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, you can find three key indexes on the website, all of them based on anonymized data. These are an incidence model, the consumer activity index, and consumer activity changes. The all-new Business section features the evolution of gross payroll and change in small business activity. The website also has other studies, including all SberIndex lab ones (former SberData).