Chris Doss The Russia Journal ------------------
Living standards up, poverty down in Russia last year ITAR-TASS
Moscow, 1 February: Russia's richest 10 per cent received 31.6 per cent of the entire aggregate income for last year while the poorest 10 per cent got just 2.3 per cent, according to State Statistics Committee figures released to PRIME-TASS today.
Disposable incomes were up 5.9 per cent in real terms in 2001 against 2000 after consumer price inflation is taken into account.
According to the State Statistics Committee, the average per-capita income in Russia was R2,878 in 2001, up 31.2 per cent on 2000.
The number of Russians on incomes below the national subsistence minimum dropped from 45.2m in the second quarter of 2001 to 39.4m in the third quarter, or from 31.3 to 27.2 per cent of the entire population.