Moscow- Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a decline in the level of poverty and its arrival to satisfactory results throughout the country.
Putin’s comments came after the Russian Federal Statistics Authority (Rostat) previously presented data on the structure of poverty “with all its manifestations according to the national definitions”, in which it confirmed that the percentage of citizens below the poverty line reached 8%in the third quarter of last year, that is, less than 1. 4 Celsius compared to the same period in 2023.
The authority said that the low levels of poverty came due to the high wages and social programs targeted for the most vulnerable groups of population and increased social benefits.
She stated that thanks to this, the entry of the lowest -income groups of population increased by 13.3%in the third quarter of 2024, and the lowest level of poverty was recorded in the Yamalu Ninitz region with autonomy (3.6%), and the highest level in the Republic of Ingusitia (27%).
The Russian Statistics Authority usually publishes 4 estimates of poverty level each year: initial appreciation, first appreciation, second appreciation, and final appreciation.
The final evaluation of 2023 will be presented in April 2025.
It is used from the authority’s data that the level of poverty has decreased in the country despite Western sanctions and unlike the estimates of Western economists who confirm that the consequences of sanctions against Moscow have already become clear by the third year of its application.
Nevertheless, Russian economists’ views differed regarding the reasons for declining poverty rates in the country, between those who saw them as a result of correct government policies, and those who see that the numbers do not reflect the reality of the situation.
Programs and initiatives
Economist Victor Lashon believes that the reduced levels of poverty were carried out thanks to the implementation of social programs that target the “most vulnerable” groups of the population, as well as raising wages, pensions and other types of income.
According to what he says to Al Jazeera Net, social contracts also had a noticeable impact on poverty reducing and forming an effective tool in its control, including helping to find work.
He adds to this what he called the second and most common type of social contracts devoted to helping to open business, which significantly contributed to increasing income, especially in the areas where this mechanism was active actively, and in the result led to a decrease in the level of poverty in it to what Within the federal level.
The spokesman increases the list of reasons for the so -called social contracts to get out of difficult life situations, which are concluded between the competent government agency and citizens or families who find themselves in a difficult living situation due to circumstances outside its will, and the only condition for it is that the income be less than the minimum living According to federal standards.
Moreover, Lashon draws to the role of grants for children and pregnant women (now gets 7 million children and 230,000 women), in addition to the minimum wage indexing unit of subsistence and insurance pensions.
Questions and doubts
On the other hand, some experts believe that talking about the decline in the level of poverty in the country gives an outwardly positive image, but at the same time ignores the growing gap between the rich and the poor, as well as inflation that spoils the optimistic image.
The social researcher, Vladimir Kushul, says that the most important thing is to take into account not only quantitative indicators, but also the quality of people’s lives and their ability to meet their basic living needs, such as food, housing and medical care.
The spokesman questions the results of the Russian Statistics Agency, adding that despite the rapid development of technology and digitization on a large scale, data on the number of people living below the poverty line arrives late.
It indicates that the estimates of the poverty level are published during the year 2023, for example, through numbers that are not final, so that the final results will not be known except in the spring of the current year.
Kushul believes that this slowness seems strange in a context that the information is supposed to be almost immediately available.
According to the expert, with every new estimate, the image becomes more and more pink and the number of poor people decreases in a magically, as he put it.
It is given, for example, that the level of poverty was at the end of 2022 at the beginning 10.5%, then after the amendments decreased to 9.8%, the same thing was repeated in 2024, when the initial estimate indicated to 8.5%and then it was reduced to 8%.
Kushul says these changes raise questions, why do every new data modification lead to a decrease in the number of poor people?
According to his opinion, even if the country witnesses temporary improvements, it is necessary to take into account the dynamics of inflation and other social and economic factors that affect the standard of living, especially in light of expectations of high food prices, which constitute another concern.
He concludes that the real situation can be more complicated than official reports show, taking into account Western sanctions, high prices, inflation and other economic factors, it can be assumed that the situation of many citizens and families is still difficult, despite the improvement in statistics.
