Last week Russian digital banking major Tinkoff released a sophisticated online tool, the ‘Tinkoff CoronaIndex,’ which aims to track the country’s economic activity during the pandemic.
The index relies on data from more than 11 million users of the Tinkoff ecosystem, including retail banking customers, some 550,000 businesses, and more than 60,000 customers acquiring services.
The beta version of Tinkoff CoronaIndex is based on the total volume of daily transactions of these individuals and businesses.
The maximum index value of 10 corresponds to the peak of consumer and business activity, which was last recorded in December 2019, whereas a value of 0 would translate into nearly zero turnover or purchases among businesses and customers.
The index, which started at 7.5 on Feb. 1, fell to around 3.9 on April 19 during the lockdown; then rose progressively 5.9 on May 21 and 6.3 on May 28.
The site also shows real-time changes in consumer spending (24 categories), SME turnover (39 categories), and other data. Tinkoff plans to increase, “in the very near future,” such other data as loans and other retail banking figures, average check for various industries, telecom data from Tinkoff Mobile, Tinkoff Travel, Tinkoff Business, etc.
The data reveal significant differences among Russia’s regions. As of 20 May, while the index stood at 5.4 in Moscow (near the national average), the highest values were recorded in the regions of the Krasnoyarsk (7.4), Novosibirsk (7.3), Omsk Region (7.2), Chelyabinsk (7.2) and Perm (7.0). The index reached 6.3 in the St. Petersburg region.
The impact of the crisis has differed considerably among sectors. Unsurprisingly, tourism-related services fell sharply with no or little signs of recovery, while e-commerce activity rose steadily. In between, home or car related services fell, then recovered, getting back or even exceeding their pre-crisis level.
