Business
its gross domestic product on social and welfare programmes and has struggled to keep wages above inflation, so the nation's poor won't be poorer, the Eurasian Development Bank said in a recent report. Isayev offered last week to help the government to raise the minimum wage to meet the poverty threshold. “We are working on the necessary resolution. And we’re prepared to defend this before the government in order to resolve the issue”, Isayev said. The average nominal income of employed Russians stands at 23,154 roubles ($738) per month, or 330 percent higher than the subsistence income, according to Rosstat. But while the numbers of the impoverished dropped steadily in the early 2000s, amid climbing oil prices and economic growth, they have remained relatively static www.RussianMind.com
since 2007. According to the State Statistics Service, in 2001 about 50 million Russians, or 33 percent, were living below the subsistence level. This number improved to 24.5 percent in early 2005, and 14.8 percent in the third quarter of 2007. The Ministry of Economic Development earlier predicted that the minimum subsistence level would rise to 8,579 roubles ($273) by 2014. But because of the rising costs of a consumer basket of goods and services, the percentage of the poor could increase from 12.7 percent in 2012 to 12.8 percent in 2013, while the poverty rate could reach 12.5 percent in 2014. But even as many Russians are coming to grips with a declining era of relative stability and prosperity, the number of Russian super-rich has increased, making Moscow home to more of the world's 13
wealthiest people than New York. According to Forbes magazine, Russia had 101 billionaires in 2011 – almost double the number in the previous year. Social and economic polarity has become so palpable that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who is seeking another term as President, told a United Russia congress in September that taxes on the rich could be raised, while acknowledging "dangerous levels of social inequality". Such public acknowledgement from the Kremlin is a sign that party members, who have dominated the top echelons of business and institutions under the Prime Minister, may have to share their wealth and power with a wider circle of Russians, analysts say. Tai Adelaja is the business correspondent for russiaprofile.org №7 (23) Special Edition 2012