Poverty levels have increased in Russia

Rosstat published a report according to which Russians with incomes below the subsistence level in the first quarter of 2019 increased by 0.5 million people (year-on-year) - now there are 20.9 million. This means that the poverty level in the country has risen to 14, 3% from 13.9% in Q1 2018.

• In May, the Accounts Chamber called one of the goals of President Putin's new May decree, halving poverty by 2024, unachievable. To do this, the share of the population with incomes below the subsistence minimum should decrease to 10.5% by the end of 2019.
• Poverty is growing purely statistically, Rosstat points out: the point is "the outstripping growth of the subsistence minimum compared to the consumer price index" with the stagnation of household incomes. In physical terms, we are talking about an increase in the subsistence minimum for the year by 715 rubles to 10,753 rubles (+ 7.2%) with inflation of 5.3%. Therefore, the reduction of inflation at the end of the year should significantly reduce the level of poverty.
• The level of subjective poverty is much higher - about 30%, and, according to the RANEPA, is also growing.
• Russia reached the minimum level of poverty in 2012 - 10.7%.
• We talked about the dynamics of real disposable incomes of Russians and its significance for the economy here . About real average wages - here .