Chinese Rush To Buy Luxury Goods In Russia: Hermes And Chanel Sweep Away

The "ruble" of the ruble and the Christmas and new year.

Under the overlapping effect of the season, Moscow is the real shopping paradise.

"I've never seen so many Chinese in Moscow for so many years, just like shopping in China."

At noon on December 17th, he mu (a pseudonym) saw several times more Chinese in the national department store in Moscow Red Square.

He told the first Financial Daily reporters that luxuries such as Hermes, LV and Prada were short selling from 16.

If the ruble depreciate to foreign tourists, it will be a great benefit to the tourists. Then, for the people living there, the price rise has become a hidden worry in the cold winter.

Ultra low discount attract

On the 17 day, part of the Moscow store continued to attract a large number of shoppers, most of whom were carrying several bags of luxury goods to sweep the goods.

"In the LV shop, many Chinese are choosing to buy the Prada, LV and others that they have bought.

Pile up on the floor, at least three layers.

He Mu said that shops almost opened the door just then.

In Atrium Mall, a high-end store in Moscow, people are also crazy about buying Western imports such as Gucci, Michael and Kors.

Another Chinese student studying in Moscow, Qi Li (pseudonym), recorded the scenes of the two days with photographs. The shelves of local Chanel and Hermes have been swept away, and the watches in OMEGA IWC store are all sold out.

A group of shops headed by Cartire can't afford to shut down directly.

The front page headline of the newspaper placed on the Russian subway that day was prominently written, "euro to ruble 1:100, US dollar to ruble 1:80".

The reality of the ruble seems to be more serious than the outside world.

Moscow's local exchange point is no longer allowed to sell rubles purely.

We can only exchange rubles with us dollars or euros instead of roubles for us dollars.

He Mu told our reporter that many of the exchange points were routing rubles because of the need to buy roubles.

At the same time, as Christmas and new year are around the corner, many shops in Moscow still carry out promotional activities at the end of the year, and many of them are playing 60 percent off or 50 percent off signboards.

He bought a pair of Adidas's basketball shoes on the 16 day, which only cost about 130 yuan.

"Now that 1 yuan can be exchanged for 11 or even 12 roubles, plus the local shopping mall's new year promotion, shopping is too cost-effective."

If compared with the exchange rate of RMB and rouble less than 6 a year ago, for Chinese, shopping in the local area is equivalent to enjoying 80 percent off super low price.

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Russians buy luxury cars to keep value.

For those Russians who hold a large number of roubles, buying luxuries is not enough to consume the rubles in their hands.

So many Russians choose to buy luxury cars to defend their savings.

In the past November alone, sales of Porsche [-1.68%] and Lexus surged 55% and 63% respectively.

The ads that have already been done by Chinese in Russia have bought luxury cars, and the advertisements spread through WeChat and other ways have written: "Lamborghini bat, Maserati CEO, Rolls-Royce phantom, purchasing luxury cars! All bills are pparent, formal tax paid, and after returning, they can be licensed on a regular basis, once again declared not smuggling!"

According to the price on the picture, Mercedes Benz sports car 6.2AT sells 9 million 300 thousand rubles, Aston Martin 5.9AT sells 9 million 400 thousand rubles, and Rolls-Royce 6.8AT sells 9 million 807 thousand and 68 roubles.

If the RMB is used to estimate the ruble at 1:11, these luxury cars are about 800 thousand of the RMB.

Commodity price rises or stops

This is a "super shopping season" for consumers, including Chinese, who hold dollars and euros. It may be the "black shopping season" of Russian local names.

Qi Li found on the 17 day, only one night, the hamburger of the school canteen rose from the original 50 rubles to 55 roubles, or 10%.

Due to the devaluation of the rouble, Moscow's price has started a full-scale rise, or nearly 20%.

According to Bloomberg report, Elena Grekhnyova, a professor at the Russian University, says she now has a daily expenditure of 1200 roubles for eggs, dairy products and vegetables, which is 20% more than a few weeks ago.

As a member of Russia's 114 million people, she also began to worry: "ruble falls off the mark, maybe I can't afford a new coat or $50 smart phone any day."

From an enterprise point of view, price rises are a helpless measure to offset the impact of the rouble depreciation on sales.

McDonald's, Pepsi Cola and some cars and cosmetics are on the rise.

What's more, stores are shut down directly, such as apple and Zara.

According to the US CNBC report, apple official website in Russia local sales on 16 officially issued a stop sale statement.

"Due to the extreme volatility of ruble, we are temporarily halting online sales in Russia, considering the price of the products.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused by the customer. "

It is not clear when the price adjustment will be.

Apple's share price fell more than 1% after the announcement.

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The world's largest

Retailer Inditex SA also closed its Zara flagship store in Moscow this month.

In fact, last month, Apple's official website had suspended sales in Russia.

Because the ruble, which continues to depreciate, makes Apple sell almost anywhere in Russia less than anywhere else in the world.

According to the estimation of he mu, the price of iPhone 6 in Russia is about twenty percent off of the official selling price in Hongkong.

He Mu told the newspaper that apple did not have official flagship stores in Moscow, mainly selling on Apple's official website, as well as some agency stores.

Before suspending the sale of official website, the local Apple products in Russia had gone through a price increase, or about 25%.

Before the sale stopped this week, apple rose again.

Qi Li bought 3 iPhone 6 in one breath on the 15 day, and learned that Apple's selling price in Russia increased again that evening, and apple officially stopped selling on Tuesday. She told the newspaper reporter that she had bought 3 pieces that day.

Raising interest is hard to stop rouble diving.

It seems that frequent price rises will not keep up with the shrinkage of rouble.

Similarly, the embarrassment of Russia's benchmark interest rate rises.

On the 16 day, the Central Bank of Russia announced that the benchmark interest rate would be raised to 17% because of the ruble's fluctuation. The exchange between the US dollar and the ruble broke through 60 and directly hit 67.

Just last week, the bank has just raised interest rates to 10.5%.

After 16 days of raising interest rates, rouble changed from 15 to 1 rupees for 1 dollars to 67.92 rubles.

Since January this year, the price of crude oil has fallen, and the rouble has fallen by nearly 60%.

MNI (MNI Indicators) chief economist Philip Ugro (Philip Uglow) said that the serious devaluation of the ruble shows the seriousness of the currency crisis.

In his view, the current situation is already a clear manifestation of economic weakness.

Under the background of sanctions imposed by Europe and the United States, the Central Bank of Russia will have a hard time to convince observers and investors that they still have the ability to prevent the recession.

Ugro said: "the rise in oil prices may be beneficial to the Russian economy, but it doesn't seem to happen."

On the morning of 17, the White House announced that President Obama will sign a new Ukraine aid bill, which includes further sanctions against Russia's weapons and oil industry.

For Russia's economy, which is already in a predicament, it is undoubtedly worse.

Russia's position on sanctions in Europe and America is still tough.