Sverdlovsk residents have begun to lift self-imposed bans on borrowing en masse due to income problems.

      Economist Dmitry Prokofyev said that Sverdlovsk Oblast is seeing a high percentage of revocations of self‑imposed credit bans compared with other regions. This may signal problems with household incomes.

      Overall nationwide the data do not indicate an anomalous spike or critical trends. According to the statistics, the share of revocations of self‑imposed bans looks as follows:

      Bashkortostan — 8.1%;

      Chelyabinsk Oblast — 6.6%;

      Sverdlovsk Oblast — 6.8%;

      Tatarstan — 6.5%;

      Krasnodar Krai — 6.1%;

      Rostov Oblast — 5.5%;

      Nizhny Novgorod Oblast — 5.5%;

      Moscow Oblast — 4.6%;

      Saint Petersburg — 4.2%.

      According to the specialist, in most regions the share of removals of self‑imposed bans is in the 5–7% range. That is, the majority of people still keep their credit restrictions.

      “Some regions show a higher percentage, which may be related to a number of local economic factors or a seasonal need for additional financing, which is not necessarily a sign of systemic problems. The Ural region (Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk oblasts) demonstrates a high readiness to return to borrowing — almost 7%. Such dynamics may indirectly signal instability in household incomes,” the economist told EAN.

      Other economists generally agree with Prokofyev’s statement and additionally link revocations of self‑imposed loan bans to the fact that citizens were unable to purchase goods on installment plans, including on marketplaces. Earlier we reported that workers at a plant in Yekaterinburg decided to go on strike due to deteriorating working conditions and a sharp reduction in wages.