Sales of beer and beer beverages grew faster, increasing by 4.5% to 11.26 billion liters.
However, sales of grape and fruit wines remained flat at 1.014 billion liters, while sales of low-alcohol beverage fell 5% to 303 million liters.
Alcohol consumption in Russia in the pure alcohol equivalent grew 2.6% to 1.35 billion liters, the center said.
Rules for selling certain types of alcohol products changed as of January 1, 2013. In addition to a ban on sales of beer and beer beverages at non-stationary retail outlets such as kiosks, night-time sales of such beverages will be banned at all retail outlets with the exception of public catering outlets such as bars and restaurants.
In addition, as of January 1 it is illegal to sell remaining stocks of alcohol products with alcohol content of up to 9% that are not labeled by special federal and excise labels.
