Since the beginning of 2021, spending by foreign citizens in Russia has begun to recover compared to last year. VTB even records an increase in expenses from January to January. According to a representative of the bank, over the year it amounted to 11 percent, the total spending reached 2.4 billion rubles, writes RBC.
The vice-president of the bank Aleksey Kirichek explains the statistics by the return to the country of foreign students, employees of companies and labor migrants. However, they are more likely to choose a bank card for payment rather than for cash withdrawals.
Sberbank records a fall from January to January by 15 percent, but at the maximum in April last year, the collapse reached 74 percent. In addition, the costs of citizens from certain countries and in a number of categories have risen sharply.
For example, residents of the CIS countries spent 88 percent more on clothing and footwear in Russian stores than a year earlier. Professor of the Russian School of Economics (NES) Oleg Shibanov believes that against the background of the collapse of the ruble, which has lost more than other currencies, visitors from neighboring countries are going to shops for cheap goods.
The fifth largest acquiring bank of the country, Russian Standard, has other data, which records a two-fold decrease in expenses compared to the first month of last year. However, spending on securities and brokerage accounts rose 237 times, purchases at “specialized retail stores” by 58 times, spending in “baby clothes and baby products” increased tenfold, and electronics stores four times.
According to VTB, spending from Chinese cards is recovering worse than others, although in the first quarter of 2019, Chinese citizens became the leaders in purchases in Russia. Sberbank points out that the fall is still 82 percent.
Earlier it was reported that in December, Russian banks increased the issuance of foreign currency loans to foreign companies at a record, to a maximum since October 2018. The amount of loans to non-residents increased by $ 3.69 billion.