The share of Russians with incomes below the subsistence level went down from 18.9 percent in the first quarter of 2006 to 16.3 in the first quarter of 2007.
Photo: Mikhail Razuvaev
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16 Percent of Russians Still Desperately Poor
The share of Russians living below the poverty line dropped to 16.3 percent in the first three months of the year, the All-Russian Center of Living Standards said in a report. An overall rise in living standards is somehow bridging the gap of wealth among regions. But the rich-poor gap is still yawning.
The poverty level in Russia is gradually falling, a recent study of the All-Russian Center of Living Standards says. The share of Russians with incomes below the subsistence level went down from 18.9 percent in the first quarter of 2006 to 16.3 in the first quarter of 2007. Meanwhile, Economic Development Minister German Gref said Thursday the share of Russians below the poverty line would go down to 10.7 percent by 2010.
The subsistence level in Russia has been set at 3,713 rubles (about $144) for this year. Among regions with the lowest number of the poor are Siberia’s Khanty-Mansiysky Area, Yamalo-Nenetsky Area and St. Petersburg with 7.9, 8.6 and 10.2 percent, respectively. In 13 Russian regions more that 30 percent live on less than $144.
Poverty is not a problem for desperately poor regions only. “Half a million of the poor live in Moscow Region and Krasnodar Territory, though the both regions look quite well-off at first sight,” says the Center’s director Vyacheslav Bobkov.
The income gap between 10 percent of Russia’s richest and poorest is not narrowing, according to the Federal Statistics Agency. The difference is still 25-fold.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 20, 2007
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