In this digest, we will tell you how Russians' spending on their health have changed over the last year, about plans to launch Russia's largest coal conveyor in the Far East this year, and how much Russians spent during the New Year holidays
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd January, 2023) In this digest, we will tell you how Russians' spending on their health have changed over the last year, about plans to launch Russia's largest coal conveyor in the Far East this year, and how much Russians spent during the New Year holidays.
PAYING MORE ATTENTION TO HEALTH
The majority of Russians spend more on personal healthcare in 2022, according to a fresh study by Invitro private medical network that interviewed slightly over 1,000 adults in late December-early January.
As many as 72% of respondents said that they saw a rise in their spending on health in 2022, with 49% of them naming health deterioration as the main reason for increased spending.
Slightly over 25% said that their health status had not changed, but they decided to be more attentive to prevention � they began to take tests more often, consult doctors, take medications and vitamins if necessary.
Last year, Russians most often took laboratory tests (16.7%), turned to a doctor for a consultation and made an appointment with a specialist doctor (14.5%), took such diagnostics and research tests, as ultrasound, ECG, X-ray, MRI, gastroscopy (13.3%), among others.
The least in-demand services, in turn, were elective and emergency surgeries (2.1%), home health care (2.3%), aesthetic medicine (2.3%), as well as remote consultations of doctors by phone or via the internet ( 2.6%).
A coal conveyor that stretches 23 kilometers (14.3 miles) in length is set to be launched on Sakhalin Island in the second half of 2023, the Eastern Mining Company told Sputnik.
"It is planned that the 23-kilometer long coal conveyor ... will start operating in the second half of 2023," the company said.
The commissioning of the entire complex will make it possible to remove dump trucks with coal from the roads of the Uglegorskii district of the Sakhalin region, where the plant is located.
The implementation of the project will also create additional jobs, the company added.
The construction of the main conveyor is the largest environmental project in Sakhalin, which aims at reducing harmful emissions into the atmosphere and the load on public roads. The project is part of the Green Coal Cluster concept, which will reduce the carbon footprint.
The real spending of Russians during the New Year holidays exceeded the planned budget by only 2% and amounted to an average of 38,500 rubles ($561) this year, a fresh poll by by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) revealed on Monday.
Those who named a specific amount of money they plan to spend for the celebration of the New Year, on average, were going to spend 37,668 rubles. Actual expenses, however, slightly exceeded the planned and amounted to 38,493 rubles, according to the findings.
"This situation is more an exception rather than a rule: for the last three years, actual expenses have significantly exceeded the planned ones (28% in 2020, 23% in 2021, 31% in 2022)," the study said.
Russians managed to save on New Year holidays only once in the history of records, in 2018.
Additionally, the poll found that men, on average, spent 21% more on New Year celebrations than women (43,705 rubles for men against 34,423 rubles for women).
Young citizens aged 25 to 34 years old spent the most on the holidays � their expenses averaged 51,717 rubles, almost half (24,675 rubles) of this amount was spent on New Year's leisure � Christmas trees for children, theaters, restaurants and other stuff.
The study was conducted among 1,600 adults via telephone interviews from December 23 to January 13.
