MOSCOW, January 19. /TASS/. Russia’s industry and trade ministry expects retail turnover in the country to rise this year, despite the plunge in the ruble, deputy minister Viktor Evtukhov told TASS on Monday.
“The growth rate in retail sales (in 2015) will slow down, but we’re still going to have a positive indicator,” Evtukhov said.
In particular, network retailers that account for around a quarter of the total retail turnover, expect their revenues to rise this year, deputy minister said. However, the deteriorating economic situation will make people cut costs, and their purchasing power will decrease, he added. In this respect, the premium segment will suffer the most, while it will have almost no impact on low cost food, baby stuff and homeware goods, Evtukhov said.
In 2013, retail turnover totaled $365 billion (23.7 trillion rubles), which is a 3.9% drop year-on-year, Russia’s industry and trade ministry reported.
“We’re currently drawing up the 2014 results. I can’t say that we expect a huge drop in retail sales as the purchasing power kept at a relatively high level since the ruble devalued closer to the end of the year,” deputy minister said.
The food import ban did not take its toll on last year’s retail turnover either, "as we managed to substitute the banned products by alternative ones," he said.