The problems are piling up, here is info from the last 24 hours:
Sales of secondary housing have collapsed in Moscow. According to the results of the first half of the year, they fell by 15.5% - Rosreestr data. This is due to high mortgage rates and the lack of preferential programs for secondary housing, experts believe.
Basic seasonal products are becoming more expensive this summer, sharply outpacing inflation. The strongest price growth in annual terms was demonstrated by beets (by almost 53%), eggs (by 42%), tomatoes (by 39.5%), apples (by almost 31%), and potatoes — by 26%. The list also includes cucumbers, with an annual price increase of almost 14%. Such data were provided by specialists from the analytical center of agribusiness “AB-Center”. Among the products that have risen in price the most in annual terms were also bananas — by 48%. https://t.me/bankrollo/29341
The new forecast of the Bank of Russia will provide for the possibility of raising the key rate to 20%, according to analysts at Alfa-Bank. Other experts interviewed by RBC also allow for a scenario with the rate increasing to 20%
Since the beginning of the year, economy class air tickets in Russia have increased in price by 33.46%. The most expensive plane tickets are sold in the last two weeks before departure, and you can save the most by planning your flight four months in advance, writes Parliamentary Newspaper.
The Bank of Russia suspends publication of statistics on the over-the-counter currency market “In order to limit the impact of sanctions, we are suspending the publication of daily information on the volume of trading in the US dollar, euro and yuan against the ruble, calculated on the basis of over-the-counter trading with settlements “tomorrow,” the regulator said in a statement. https://t.me/bbbreaking/186166
“Sales of secondary housing have collapsed in Moscow”
Russia was using some communist Chinese-style real estate bubble pumping, to stoke their economy (GDP numbers) in the short term.
They expanded low cost loans to favored groups, to buy (only) new houses. That funded a lot of construction in the short term, with resulting increases in construction employment and supply chains for materials.
However, it created artificial price disparities between new houses and previously owned houses. Like how the value of a new car drops the moment you drive it off the lot, as it becomes a used car - but more markedly so. It became common that people with those cheap Government mortgages were deep underwater on their mortgages, the moment that they closed on their loans. In some cases, the resale value would drop to half of the value of the loan just signed.
The loans were (are) given to people in qualified groups, regardless of their ability to pay. There are a sizable segment of recipients who are underwater on their mortgage, and whose payments exceed 80% of their income.
For the people outside the favored groups with Government subsidized low interest mortgages, most Russians have to take out prohibitively expensive mortgages (18-20%), so they can afford to pay much less for their (used) houses, for the same monthly payment.
Eggs have still not recovered from the world wide bird flu, and required slaughter of millions/billions? of infected or exposed birds. Now all we need to pile on the troubles, especially for Russia, is a potato blight epidemic.