http://news.yahoo.com/russia-imposes-rationing-token-gesture-204634332.html Signs of panic buying have emerged in recent weeks with many hard-pressed households hoarding sugar and buckwheat, one of the country's main staples, as the ruble at one point lost one quarter of its value in just two days. Worried about rising inflation and the real value of their wages and savings plummeting, poorer Russians have been stockpiling goods they think will hold their value In one of the most bizarre episodes of panic buying in a nation notorious for its hoarding instincts in times of trouble, people have been buying up to 85,000 extra metro tokens a day so they can save three rubles (five cents) when the price goes up on January 1. With more than 1.8 million sold so far in December the authorities had to step in and ban cashiers from selling people more than two tokens at a time. Sugar, buckwheat, and now metro tokens? Sounds like the economy isn't doing as well as Putina wants his loyal sheeple to believe.
Is it End of America? No, just Black Friday. Where can you read that Russians who want save a little bit money degraded to animals like Americans it do? http://postgradproblems.com/black-friday-the-worst-thing-about-america/
The state of the Russian economy is not as bad as it seems and it grew slightly in the final two months of 2014. The World Bank's forecast that Russia's GDP would contract by 3.8 per cent in 2015 may not be too disastrous for ordinary Russian consumers even if it proves to be right.
