Russia Retail Sales Growth Slows Sharply
2026-03-04 16:22
By
Luisa Carvalho
1 min. read
Retail sales in Russia went up by 0.7% year-on-year in January 2026, slowing from a 3.9% increase in December and missing analysts' forecasts of a 1.7% rise.
This marked the smallest increase in retail sales activity since a decline was observed in March 2023, reflecting weaker household spending on food products, including beverages, and tobacco products (0.8% vs 2.2% in December) and non-food products (0.7% vs 5.7%).
On a monthly basis, retail trade plunged 22.2%, after a 17.1% jump in the preceding month.
Retail sales growth slowed considerably in 2025, reaching 2.6% compared with 7.7% in the previous year.