Sunday, January 10, 2021

"Russians’ economic optimism at two-decade low – poll"

Well duh da. How would you feel if you were in some small town a thousand miles east of Moscow, wondering if the Covid-19 or the cold is going to get to you first when the government comes up with the ultimate Russian good news/bad news joke: We have a vaccine for the coronavirus! And you can't drink for eight weeks!

From the Barents Observer:

Russians’ economic optimism for 2021 has fallen to a two-decade low, according to a Gallup International poll cited by the RBC news website Wednesday.

The survey results come after a year when Russians’ incomes fell and the double blow of the coronavirus pandemic and declining global oil demand battered the national economy.

The poll said that only 6% of Russian respondents expect 2021 to be a year of prosperity while 47% expect economic hardship. 

The score of minus 41 percentage points on Gallup’s optimism index matches 1998, the year of Russia’s financial crisis, RBC reported. The outlet said this year’s pessimism was two points short of 2013, when the economic optimism index reached minus 43 percentage points....

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