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‘During my latest 10 day visit to St Petersburg, I have kept my eye on prices in the supermarkets, in the municipal food markets, and I have some conclusions to share as a follow-up to my first shopping basket survey published on these pages at the end of July 2015.
Statistics on inflation for 2015 started from a high annualized rate of 15% coming out of the EU sanctions and Russian counter-sanctions, namely the food embargo. Food had always occupied a heavy position in Russians’ family budgets, partly because eating well is a core value which is relatively inelastic. Therefore, inflation in food prices due to the removal from the market of certain cheap imported products would exert a greater impact on official statistics than other lines in the budget.’