Inflation in Russia Hitting Poor Far Harder than Those Better Off as Prices for Basic Foodstuffs Increasing Nearly Twice as Fast as Overall Inflation, Rosstat Reports

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 12 – Moscow more or less regularly releases information on inflation rates in the Russian Federation but only occasionally provide data on categories of goods that hit different income groups differently. Now, it has done so and these show that inflation is hitting the poor far harder as those with higher incomes.

            Specifically, the new Rosstat data show that prices for the basic foods of the simplest of diets have been increasing at a rate nearly twice as high as those affecting other foods and consumer items purchased by better off Russians (nsn.fm/economy/rost-tsen-na-bazovye-produkty-pitaniya-v-rossii-operedil-inflyatsiu).

            Sadly, that is a pattern in many countries; but in Russia it means that just before the Duma elections, Russians have been given confirmation that in the first seven months of 2026, poorer Russians saw the cost of foods they rely on rise by more than eight percent while overall inflation as reported by Rosstat went up by only 4.75 percent.

            For some foods, the jump in prices reached more than 36 percent, with the largest increases concentrated in those on which the impoverished rely.