Measured by GDP Per Capita, Russia Falls Behind Not Just Baltic Countries but Two Other Former Soviet Republics as Well

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Jan. 7 – For all the talk in Moscow and in parts of the West about how well the economy of the Russian Federation is doing, a new set of statistics raises some serious questions about that and about the position of its economy relative not only to Western countries but to former Soviet republics.

            From the beginning of the post-Soviet period, Russia’s GDP per capita lagged behind the GDP per capita of the three formerly occupied Baltic republics, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. That remains true. The GDP per capita for Russia is currently 13,320 US dollars; that for the Baltic countries, 33, 020, 26,950 and 31,120 dollars respectively.

            But another figure from the International Monetary Fund is. It shows that for the first time, despite all the talk about Russia’s economic success,  the per capita GDP in that country has fallen behind two of the former Soviet republics, although it continues to lead nine of them by significant amounts (krizis-kopilka.ru/archives/101458).

            The two where the GDP per capita figures are higher than in the Russian Federation are Turkmenistan, whose GDP per capita is now 14,180 US dollars, and Kazakhstan, where that statistic amounts to 14,400. The others range behind Russia from a low of 1,270 per capita in Tajikistan to 9,090 per capita in Armenia.