Paul
Goble
Staunton, April 28 – Rosstat, the
Russian government’s official statistical office, reports that 42.1 percent of
Russians live on 633 rubles or less a day, a figure amounting to 9.90 US
dollars; and that slightly more than every fourth Russian—26.9 percent – lives
on eight US dollars a day.
These figures, reported in Rosstat’s
quarterly publication, are above those of the poorest countries of the world;
but they are also far below those for Western Europe and the United States (gks.ru/free_doc/doc_2018/social/osn-03-2018.pdf and finanz.ru/novosti/lichnyye-finansy/rosstat-40percent-rossiyan-zhivut-menshe-chem-na-$10-v-den-1022661756).
They indicate that “more than a
third” of the Russian population now exists at a level “when all their incomes
go for food and required payments, according to monitoring by the Russian
Academy of Economics and State Service as reported by Finanz.ru. And to keep their heads above water, ever more
Russians are using credit cards or taking out loans.
A second piece of troubling economic
news from Russian officials that at least in part confirms Western estimates comes
from Viktor Bondaryev, chairman of the Federation Council defense and security
committee. He says that between 2000 and 2017, more than 430 billion US dollars
left Russia in capital flight (ria.ru/economy/20180427/1519591387.html).
“These gigantic financial means
could have been invested in the development of the country’s economy,” he
says. While his figures are lower than
the 1.3 trillion US dollars some Western analysts have proposed, they are
vastly larger than those Russian officials have offered in the past (svpressa.ru/economy/article/199111/).
No comments:
Post a Comment