Assessment of the financial situation and consumer confidence of households in the COVID-19 pandemic

The article examines the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on consumer confidence of the population of the Russian Federation. The relevance of this work is due to the fact that the crisis caused by the pandemic has had a serious impact on the behavior patterns of households. It is consumer behavior that is one of the most important components in the formation of economic relations of all economic entities. Among the factors that affected consumer confidence of households were changes in the size and growth rates of monetary incomes of the population, the structure of the labor market, the state of economic sectors, uncertainty about the timing and nature of the pandemic and the introduced coronavirus restrictions. In the analyzed period of time, households note a deterioration in personal material well-being, refuse expensive purchases, reduce spending, form stocks of cash and essential goods, expectations of price growth and inflation in the economy are growing. As a general indicator assessing the degree of impact of the pandemic on consumer confidence of the population, the consumer confidence index is used, which is calculated using indices of past and expected changes in personal financial situation, past and expected changes in the economic situation in Russia, favorable conditions for large purchases. The values of the analyzed indices decreased in the 2nd quarter of 2020, which turned out to be one of the critical periods during the coronavirus pandemic in the territory of the Russian Federation. In subsequent periods of time, there is a tendency for indicators to return to pre-crisis values due to targeted government support, soft monetary policy and the situational introduction of anti-crisis measures.