{"id":1353469,"date":"2026-02-04T11:57:31","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T09:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/inflation-in-russia-significantly-exceeds-official-figures-food-prices-have-risen-by-25-isw\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T11:57:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T09:57:31","slug":"inflation-in-russia-significantly-exceeds-official-figures-food-prices-have-risen-by-25-isw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/inflation-in-russia-significantly-exceeds-official-figures-food-prices-have-risen-by-25-isw\/","title":{"rendered":"Inflation in Russia significantly exceeds official figures: food prices have risen by 25% \u2013 ISW"},"content":{"rendered":"

The actual inflation rate in Russia is significantly higher than what Russian dictator Vladimir Putin publicly claims. In particular, food prices have risen by approximately 25%.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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This is stated in a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).<\/p>\n

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Analysts emphasize that the Kremlin continues to try to conceal or downplay the economic consequences of the full-scale war against Ukraine, Western sanctions, and miscalculations in its own economic policy.<\/p>\n

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Putin recently acknowledged that Russia’s gross domestic product growth in 2025 would be only 1%, compared to 4.1% in 2023 and 4.3% in 2024. At the same time, he called this slowdown “artificial” and attributed it to the government’s supposedly targeted efforts to curb inflation.<\/p>\n

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According to the dictator, inflation in Russia would fall to 5.6% by the end of 2025, after peaking at 9.6% in 2024. However, Putin acknowledged that inflation had already risen to 6.4% year-on-year by January 2026. He attributed this to the increase in value-added tax from 20% to 22% effective January 1, 2026.<\/p>\n

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ISW notes that the VAT increase was likely a measure to cover the federal budget deficit caused by excessive defense spending. Effectively, the financial burden was transferred to the Russian population.<\/p>\n

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Analysts have recorded a sharp rise in food prices \u2013 up to 25% both before and after the VAT increase. This, according to ISW, indicates that the actual inflation rate in Russia significantly exceeds the Kremlin’s official figures.<\/p>\n

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“The systematic distortion of inflation data is aimed at creating the illusion that the war against Ukraine and Western sanctions are not damaging the Russian economy,” the analysts concluded.<\/p>\n

As a reminder, US President DonaldTrump has voiced the idea of a global redistribution of spheres of influence between the US, China, and Russia<\/a> , changing the traditional American policy of containment. This entails a softer policy toward Beijing and possible recognition of Russia’s territorial gains in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, Russia and China are actively taking advantage of Donald Trump’s desire to conclude quick agreements<\/a> and are attempting to weaken American alliances in Europe and Asia.<\/p>\n

It was previously reported that China had begun building its own “shadow fleet” of gas tankers<\/a> , which would allow the country to import sanctioned Russian liquefied gas.<\/p>\n

Also follow “Pryamy”<\/strong> on Facebook<\/a> , Twitter<\/a> , Telegram<\/a> and Instagram<\/a> .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The actual inflation rate in Russia is significantly higher than what Russian dictator Vladimir Putin publicly claims. In particular, food prices have risen by approximately 25%. This is stated in a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Analysts emphasize that the Kremlin continues to try to conceal or downplay the economic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":1265464,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76871,76872,76874,76875],"class_list":["post-1353469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-2","category-news-feed","category-war","category-other-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1353469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1353469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1353469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1265464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1353469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1353469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}