Real Inflation in Russia at 7% Based on Average Price of Traditional Olivier Salad: Study
Red Square in Moscow. View
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Preparation of the traditional Russian Olivier salad, a staple dish for the New Year’s celebrations, will cost Russian citizens 7% more year-on-year, with the average price of products for four people totaling 481 rubles ($6.69), according to a study by the Russian analytic resource CheckIndex, commissioned by Sputnik. “The cost of preparing a classic Olivier salad with sausage, based on the average purchase size of salad ingredients in a store for December 1-18, 2022, amounted to 481 rubles, which is 34 rubles more than last year. The Olivier salad is also sold by weight in stores. The average bill of its purchase is 194 rubles, which is 2% higher than last year,” CheckIndex experts said. The average check increased for pickled cucumbers (by 38% to 68 rubles), dill and parsley (by 23% to 25 rubles), green peas (by 18% to 91 rubles), mayonnaise (by 17% to 56 rubles), onions (by 13% to 11 rubles) and sausage (by 2% to 102 rubles). At the same time, the average price decreased for potatoes (by 22% to 43 rubles), carrots (by 3% to 8 rubles) and chicken eggs (by 1% to 78 rubles). CheckIndex experts also noted that there is a decrease in retail prices for a set of vegetables from the salad this New Year’s season. Nevertheless, Russians do not cut back on the salad and choose ingredients of higher quality that are respectively more expensive, which affects the average purchase amount. The experts’ calculations correlated with the recent data of the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) on the ingredients cost for the Olivier salad. The average price for the set of salad ingredients rose 8.53% to 481 rubles over the year, according to Rosstat estimates.
