Consumer basket- the minimum set of food products, non-food products and services necessary to maintain human health and ensure its vital activity. Legislation establishes a certain relationship between indicators such as monthly wage, Minimum wage, living wage and consumer basket:

The size and composition of the consumer basket are approved by the Government of the Russian Federation at least once every 5 years and are established by law. This is much less common than in Western countries. In the UK, for example, updates occur annually.

The consumer basket consists of three baskets: food, non-food and services.

food basket is a set of foods for one person per month, calculated on the basis of minimum consumption norms for products that correspond to the physical needs of the person, calorie content, content of essential nutrients and ensure compliance with traditional food management skills.

The minimum food consumption norms adopted for calculations are recommended by the Institute of Nutrition of the Academy of Medical Sciences Russian Federation. They include food products of 11 groups: bread and bakery products, potatoes, vegetables and melons, fruits and berries, meat and meat products, fish and fish products, milk and dairy products, eggs, sugar and confectionery, vegetable oil and margarine, other products ( salt, pepper, etc.). one

Consumption rates are differentiated by eight territorial zones. The basis zoning the territory of the Russian Federation for the formation of a minimum set of foodstuffs, the following factors are assumed:

− natural-climatic and economic conditions;

− features of food production;

− national traditions and local peculiarities in the nutrition of the population;

- the existing structure of nutrition, taking into account the actual consumption of products in low-income families;

− the need to meet the needs of the main socio-demographic groups of the population in nutrients, based on chemical composition and energy value of food;

− higher energy value of the minimum food sets for the main socio-demographic groups of the population living in the regions of the North.

The norms are also differentiated by socio-demographic groups of the population:

For the able-bodied population, based on the physiological characteristics of the body of men and women who are not engaged in heavy physical labor;

For pensioners, taking into account the age-related decrease in the need for the energy value of food;

For children, taking into account the need to provide them with adequate nutrition for the development of a healthy body (at the age of 0–6 years), as well as additional nutrition for active social and physical development (at the age of 7–15 years).

The cost of the food basket for each population group is calculated by multiplying the minimum quota of food consumption by the average purchase price.

The main principles for the formation of a minimum set of food products are:

Satisfying the needs of the main socio-demographic groups of the population in nutrients, based on the chemical composition and energy value of food products;

The current structure of nutrition, taking into account the actual consumption of products in low-income families;

The choice of products that allow you to organize a healthy diet at minimal cost;

When forming the minimum set of food products, the norms of physiological requirements for nutrients in force in the Russian Federation for various population groups and the recommendations of the WHO (World Health Organization) are used;

The calculation of the chemical composition and energy value of the minimum set of food products is carried out taking into account their losses during cooking. one

The minimum set of food products is formed on the basis of fixed norms for the chemical composition and energy value of products (Table 2.2.1).

Table 2.2.1 - Chemical composition and energy value of the minimum set of food products for the main socio-demographic groups of the population, as a whole in the Russian Federation

The cost of the minimum consumption of non-food goods and services is determined on the basis of budget surveys of household incomes, the level of food consumption in which corresponds to the minimum.

Expenditure on non-food goods and services used to be specified using the normative method based on the standards of supply and service life of durable items developed by the Central Energy Research Institute under the Ministry of Economy of Russia. The calculation was made for three groups of goods: 1 - wardrobe items (outerwear, shoes, hats, etc.); 2 - items of sanitation, hygiene, medicines; 3 - durable goods (furniture, dishes, household appliances, household items, etc.). one

Among the principles of forming a minimum set of services, the main ones are:

Satisfaction of the needs of the main socio-demographic groups of the population in housing, organization of life, movement;

The current level of use of transport services;

Paid nature of the provision of services.

The minimum set of services also includes housing, communal, transport and other types of services.

Housing and utility costs are determined based on regulations, prices and tariffs in the region. The costs of families for taxes and fees are also taken into account. one

The cost of the consumer basket directly affects the cost of living, and since 2018, the minimum wage. The mechanism is as follows: every quarter, Rosstat calculates the price of the consumer basket, on the basis of which the cost of living is determined. Recall that from May 1, 2018, the minimum wage is 100% of the RM.

Let's tell you how much a consumer basket costs in 2019. The composition and price for a month of the minimum set of food, non-food products and services that are necessary for survival in the Russian Federation will be presented below.

Issues of legal regulation

The current Federal Law "On the consumer basket in the whole of the Russian Federation" was adopted by the State Duma on November 20, 2012. Article 1 establishes that the consumer basket is established at least once every 5 years. That is, this basket should have been reviewed by the beginning of 2018. However, Article 4 on the validity period was amended by Law No. 421-FZ of December 28, 2017, extending the validity of the “food package” until December 31, 2020 inclusive.

It turns out that since 2013 the set of mandatory products, goods and services has not changed for more than 5 years and will not change in the next 2.5 years.

Federal Law No. 134-FZ of October 24, 1997 “On the Living Wage in the Russian Federation” (Article 1) establishes the most important concepts related to the topic of this article:

• consumer basket - the minimum set of food products necessary to preserve human health and ensure his life, as well as non-food products and services, the cost of which is determined in relation to the cost of the minimum set of food products;
• living wage - the cost estimate of the consumer basket, as well as mandatory payments and fees;
• in Art. 2 of the law determines that the purpose of the subsistence minimum is, among other things, to justify the minimum wage accepted at the state level, the amount of scholarships, allowances, and other social payments.

The same law states that:

1. the basket is developed by a tripartite commission for the regulation of social and labor relations both at the federal level and at the regional level; it is fixed by federal legislation, at the same time a methodology is approved that reveals the features of the formation of a minimum of products.
2. the constituent entities of Russia adopt their own acts on this subject. They cannot contain provisions worsening the position of citizens in comparison with the federal law. Thus, in some subjects, the situation with the consumer basket (as well as with the minimum wage, the subsistence minimum) may be better than in the whole country.

The government gives the regions guidelines for the adoption of local acts, which should take into account the peculiarities of climate, culture, traditions. The main current act is the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of January 28, 2013 No. 54 “On approval guidelines on the definition of the consumer basket for the main socio-demographic groups of the population in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

In particular, it establishes 10 natural and climatic zones, each of which has its own specifics in terms of a set of products. Speaking conditionally, the 1st zone is the coldest (North), the 10th is the warmest, while St. Petersburg belongs to the 6th zone, Moscow - to the 7th.

The minimum consumer basket in Russia in 2019 is compiled separately for 3 main groups: able-bodied adults, pensioners and children.

Structure and size of the consumer basket

The paradox of the current basket is that its size is determined by calculations of the cost of food products needed by each person. The law does not establish a list of services and non-food products, it only indicates that their price is determined by the ratio to food. Both services and manufactured goods account for 50% of the cost of food. Therefore, the total cost of the consumer basket is determined by the price of the food package, multiplied by two.

The basket structure includes three components

1. The minimum set of products grouped into 11 main groups.
2. Basic necessities: clothes, shoes, medicines.
3. Payments for services, mainly transport and utilities.

Once again, we note that groups 2 and 3 are only named by law, their exact decoding and composition of the Federal Law does not contain. In fact, their cost is determined "by eye".

Table: consumer basket 2019 in Russia

The composition and list of the most necessary food products for citizens is presented in the table below:

What does the consumer basket look like in 2019 (composition and price per month) in the Russian Federation? On the official website of Rosstat there is a form that shows the cost of a conditional (minimum) set of food products. For comparison, let's take data for Russia as a whole, Moscow and St. Petersburg:

It looks implausible, especially when you consider that, according to such calculations, a person can spend only 132 rubles per day on food.

Now let's see what the full consumer basket in Russia is for 2018 (official Rosstat data on the cost of a fixed set of consumer goods and services):

Recall that the minimum wage from May 1 is set at 11,163 rubles per month. At the same time, the daily consumer basket of a Russian in rubles (2018, for May) is 502.37 kopecks. This is taking into account fees for treatment, food, travel, utilities, etc.

Compare consumer baskets

In the USSR, the consumer basket included more products such as:

• Meat (84 kg, now 58.6 kg)
• Fish (20 kg, now 18.5 kg)
• Eggs (280 pcs., now 210)
• Milk (380 l, not the current 290)
• Fruits (80 kg, current value - 60)
• Vegetables (146 kg, today 114)

Now there is more flour in the consumer basket - from 110 kg to almost 127.

Note that in other countries of the world, it is not the set of products and services necessary for survival that is taken into account, but the composition of goods required to maintain a decent standard of living:

• the German basket contains 475 items;
• in English - 700 (in addition to products and standard services, visits to restaurants, theaters, football, swimming pools, repair costs, etc. are included);
• in French, pet food, expenses for beauty salons, taxis, etc. are additionally taken into account.

What the experts say

The representative of the Institute of Socio-Economic Problems of Population of the Russian Academy of Sciences V. Bobkov points out that the existing approach does not reflect modern life. Now it is impossible to do without spending on the Internet, paying for mobile communications and telephones, without loans and deposits, without paid treatment, tutors. “If all these far from luxurious needs are included in the cost of the consumer basket, then it should increase by 2.5-3 times.”

O. Sokolov, secretary of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions, also believes that "the consumer basket should correspond to real expenses." Notes that food expenses should not exceed 30%. When they make up half of the minimum set, this is a sign of the country's poverty.

The trade union leader believes that insurance payments and savings should be included in the basket, and its size should be at least doubled.

How do they want to change the law?

Until September 2017, Minister of Labor and Social Protection M. Topilin promised that the basket would be revised in favor of increasing the share of meat, vegetables and fruits in it. Instead, the basket was “frozen” until 2021. This happened because of plans to equalize the minimum wage and the PM, which was done. Obviously, if the minimum consumer set was changed and became more expensive, the PM would also increase, and it would be difficult for the “minimum wage” to catch up with it.

In January 2018, Topilin was again promised a revision. Then there was talk about the fact that the consumer basket may soon be completely abandoned. Saying that the cost of living can be determined from the median per capita income, and not from the price of the minimum necessary things for a person.

The consumer basket includes products, goods and services that are necessary to meet the standard needs of people. It is calculated for a year and is linked to the living wage established by the government.. The latter is reviewed annually due to price changes.

In 2017, the consumer basket is valid, which was adopted in 2013.

Half of its cost is occupied by food. For different categories of citizens (able-bodied, pensioners, children), the norms are different. Let's make a reservation that the list is extremely vital necessary products, does not include purchase alcoholic beverages and delicacies.

So, according to the norm, an adult is supposed to be a year:

- bread products a little more than 126 kg. This includes not only bread, but pasta, cereals, cereals and legumes;

- potatoes - about 100 kg;

- vegetables - 114 kg;

- fresh fruit - 60 kg;

- sugar and sweets - about 24 kg;

- meat and products from it - 58 kg;

- fish - 18.5 kg;

- milk and its derivatives - 290 kg;

- eggs - 210 pcs.;

- fats (vegetable and animal origin) - 11 kg;

- tea, salt, spices - 5 kg.

It is worth noting that most people do not invest in these norms and spend more than half of the family budget on food.

In addition, the consumer basket includes non-grocery goods.

Buying a coat or jacket is possible once every 2.5 years. Also for 12 months:

- dresses and suits - 2 pieces;

- underwear - 3 pcs.;

- stockings and socks - 7 pcs.;

- bed linen - 2 pcs.;

- shoes - 2 pairs;

- headdress - 1 pc.

This also includes writing instruments, household goods. No more than 10% of the cost of the basket is allocated for medicines and hygiene products. And only for pensioners - 15%, but by reducing other purchases.

The third group - utility bills, transport, expenses for cultural events

Payment for an apartment, water, gas, electricity is calculated minimally, but this often does not correspond to the real situation. For example, it is assumed that 18 sq.m. is enough for a person to live, but these are often underestimated figures if the living area includes balconies and loggias.

A consumer basket is an approximate set of products, a range of products that characterize the typical level and structure of a person's or family's monthly (annual) consumption. Such a set is used to calculate the minimum consumer budget (living wage), the origin of the cost of the consumer basket in current prices. The consumer basket also forms the basis for comparing settlement and real consumption levels, and also the basis for determining the purchasing power of currencies.

Consumer basket - a minimum set of food products, non-products and services necessary to maintain human health and ensure its activities.

In Russia, the consumer basket is calculated in accordance with the law "On the Consumer Basket in the whole of the Russian Federation", adopted on January 1, 2013. The Russian consumer basket includes three main parts:

1) Foodstuffs such as flour products, grains, vegetable crops, meat, fish and dairy products;

2) Non-food products, which include things, medicines, various equipment;

3) Payment for housing, heat, water, light, in addition, the cost of transport, cultural events, etc.

The cost of the consumer basket in Russia - official data

Table: consumer basket 2018 in Russia

What does the consumer basket look like in 2018 (composition and price per month) in the Russian Federation? On the official website of Rosstat there is a form that shows the cost of a conditional (minimum) set of food products. For comparison, let's take data for Russia as a whole, Moscow and St. Petersburg:

It looks implausible, especially when you consider that, according to such calculations, a person can spend only 132 rubles per day on food.

Now let's see what the full consumer basket in Russia is for 2018 (official Rosstat data on the cost of a fixed set of consumer goods and services):

Recall that the minimum wage from May 1 is set at 11,163 rubles per month. At the same time, the daily consumer basket of a Russian in rubles (2018, for May) is 502.37 rubles. This is taking into account fees for treatment, food, travel, utilities, etc.

The cost of the consumer basket directly affects the cost of living, and since 2018, the minimum wage. The mechanism is as follows: every quarter, Rosstat calculates the price of the consumer basket, on the basis of which the cost of living is determined. Recall that from May 1, 2018, the minimum wage is 100% of the RM.

Let's tell you how much a consumer basket costs in 2018. The composition and price for a month of the minimum set of food, non-food products and services that are necessary for survival in the Russian Federation will be presented below.

Consumption table per year

Name	unit of measurement	For working citizens (volume per year)	For pensioners (volume per year)	For children (volume per year)
Bread products	kg	126,5	98,2	77,6
Potato	kg	100,4	80,0	88,1
Vegetables	kg	114,6	98,0	112,5
Fruits	kg	60,0	45,0	118,1
Sugar and confectionery in terms of sugar	kg	23,8	21,2	21,8
Meat and products from it	kg	58,6	54,0	44,0
Seafood and fish	kg	18,5	16,0	18,6
Milk and dairy products in terms of milk	kg	290,0	257,8	360,7
Eggs	things	210	200	201
Vegetable oil, margarine and other fats	kg	11,0	10,0	5,0
Other products (salt, tea, spices)	kg	4,9	4,2	3,5

The consumer basket is a set of minimum needs of citizens. It consists of three main parts:

• grocery;
• services in various areas (utilities, entertainment, recreation, car maintenance, etc.);
• non-food items.

In Russia, the consumer standard is calculated once every five years. The last count was made in 2013. The composition of the consumer basket should include everything you need, something that you can’t do without in modern world. In Europe, the cost of the consumer basket includes not only ordinary goods and services, but also, according to Russians, excesses. Thus, this indicator includes payments for the Internet, mobile communications, personal hygiene products, etc.

The minimum consumer basket serves as the basis for calculating the subsistence minimum for citizens of the country, as well as for the formation of standard amounts of pensions, social benefits and salaries.

Monetary standards are annually indexed according to inflation and price increases.

When forming a basket of consumers, the Government of the Russian Federation always takes into account a number of additional features, such as regional factors, climatic conditions, national traditions, etc.

The minimum size of the consumer basket of Russians in 2016

In 2016, there were no changes in the Russian consumer basket. To date, the food part of the total volume is 50%, while in Europe only 20% is spent on food.

The non-food group includes the cost of clothes, medicines, shoes, underwear, etc. Only 20% is spent on these needs. Consumer services, such as utility bills, public transport, cultural events, account for 40% of the consumer basket in 2016.

So, we can cite the indicators from the consumer basket that are set for Russian citizens until 2018. Residents need:

• 300 grams of bread and flour products daily, which is 126.5 kg of flour per year;
• 280 grams of potatoes (more than 100 kg per person per year);
• 300 grams of vegetables and 160 fruits, which, respectively, for the year is almost 115 kg of vegetables and 60 kg of fruits;
• 160 grams of meat, which in 12 months will be 59 kg;
• 0.5 eggs daily;
• seafood in the annual diet of Russians is 18.5 kg.

A particularly deplorable situation in 2016 was in the cultural sphere. The consumer basket in Russia provides for only 5% for the entertainment of citizens, i.e. an adult employed resident of the country can only go to the cinema or theater once. More funds for moral rest and recuperation of citizens are not provided.

It should be borne in mind that pensioners and children need a more complete composition of the consumer minimum. The issue of expanding living standards in the state is acute and is constantly hotly discussed at meetings of the State Duma.

Deputies did not reach a consensus for half of 2016.

Today, the minimum consumer basket and the cost of living have practically become synonymous, although in fact this is not so. The size of consumer standards should be exclusively the basis for calculating the normal standard of living of citizens.

The composition and significance of the consumer basket in Ukraine in 2016

In Ukraine, as of 2016, the consumer basket contains 296 goods and services necessary for life. The last time this indicator was thoroughly revised was in 2000. Since then, there have been no major changes, although there was a slight upsurge in 2013, and total cost consumer basket amounted to 1176 hryvnia.

These funds, given the difficult economic situation in Ukraine, the growth of the dollar, the progressive inflation, the increase in the country's external debt, are completely insufficient to ensure normal living conditions for Ukrainian families. Today, the basket of an average consumer in Ukraine includes:

• 172 grams of bread per day;
• 290 grams of cereals for a month;
• 7 kg of potatoes monthly;
• 1.5 kg of meat in 30 days;
• 0.5 kg of fish and seafood.

The situation is more complicated in the non-food sector of the consumer basket in Ukraine in 2016. So a man can afford one trousers for 4 years, 2 T-shirts a year, 1 swimming trunks for 10 years, 1 boot for 5 years, 5 pairs of socks a year. Medicine, culture, transport, modern technologies- all this is simply inaccessible to ordinary working Ukrainians. The situation is complicated by the war in the east of the country. Financing the army takes away a significant part of the funds that could be used to ensure a normal standard of living for the population in Ukraine.

Practice shows that Ukraine is still far from achieving the desired European living wage.

Today we can safely say that the size and composition of the consumer basket in a country can be used to calculate its standard of living. Ukraine and Russia are far from leading positions, but the authorities of the countries are pursuing a targeted policy to improve the situation.