Poverty in Russia

Résumé du document

Russia is the biggest country in the world and is also today one of the 10th most important economy in the world. In fact, Russia is situated at the 14th world rank concerning its total GDP for 2005 with approximately 763 000 million $, and at the 10th world rank concerning its PPP GDP for 2005 with 1 560 000 million $. After the crisis caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia's economy slowly began its recovery, until the financial crisis broke this positive trend in 1998. Russia revived from the financial crisis quite quickly with industry-led growth aided by the depreciated rouble. Then, since the beginning of 1999 the country's economy has experienced a positive trend, which naturally has reflected to its GDP. In fact, the performance of the Russian economy since 1998 has been impressive. Between 1998 and 2006, Russian GDP expanded by an estimated 57.6%, while real incomes of the population grew by 65%.Despite this economic growth, the indicators of life level places Russia among countries with intermediate level of life. The demographic situation is particularly worrying, with a life expectancy of 59 years old for men and 72 for women and a decreasing and aging population. The number of people living below the subsistence level reached 13, 5% in 2005, which is very important even if we observe a decrease these last few years.

Extraits

[...] We can foresee the emergence of a middle class in Russia, which would represent approximately of the population in 2007. Sources http://www.worldbank.org http://www.un.org http://www.wto.org http://www.uccife.org http://en.g8russia.ru http://www.balticdata.info/russia http://www.missioneco.org/russie http://www.economist.com http://www.atlas-monde.net http://boursorama.com http://www.npr.org http://en.rian.ru/russia/20051208/42388703.html http://www.euro.who.int/document/E76240.pdf http://www.gks.ru/eng/ http://www.colisee.org http://www.lexpansion.com http://www.insee.fr http://www.cdi.org/russia http://worldperspective.usherbrooke.ca/bilan/pays/RUS/en.html http://www.mosnews.com Men Ages Women Thanks to the chart below we can observe that between 1991 and 1995, the life expectancy for both men and women was decreasing, but in 1996 it was increasing, then, after the crisis in 1998 it fell down again. [...]

[...] Investments in health (along with education) are essential for labour productivity. The health status of people in Russia compares poorly with that in many middle-income countries. Life expectancy has been declining since the mid- 1980s, with a particular fall since the transition years of the early 1990s and again since the 1998 economic crisis. Over three-fourths of the decline in life expectancy during the transition was due to an increased mortality rate for young adults during their productive years (25-64 years). [...]

[...] Today, the official poverty line has been fixed at per day and 13,5% of the Russian population is living under it Who are the poor in Russia today ? Number of poor people in Russia (1997-2002) Poverty is widespread but shallow in Russia. In 2002, the headcount ratio of poverty was 19,6% of the total population. The average poor person consumption was about 26% below the poverty line. Furthermore, there is a large concentration of the near-poor, just above the poverty line. Today, about 13,5% of the Russian population is officially declared poor, living below the poverty line established at a day. [...]

[...] In general, the real value of retirement pensions has been preserved, so the position of pensioners has not deteriorated in absolute terms and, with the impoverishment of much of the rest of the population, it has improved in relative terms. Poverty rates for pensioners are consistently found to be below average. The social pension, paid to those, mostly women, without a sufficient work history, has deteriorated sharply in real terms as have disability allowances and child benefits, although the decline in the real value of benefits was stemmed in 1995 and child benefits, now to be means tested, were increased. [...]

[...] First it is important to increase the poverty reduction impact of scarce public funds and to improve the targeting of social assistance. Second it is important to develop policies that protect the poor from the adverse consequences of important reform initiatives, such as increasing the cost recovery in the housing and communal services sector. Third, while overall consumption inequality has not decreased recently, underlying forces in the form of the increased disparity in enrolment in non-compulsory education and the inequality in access to quality education are increasingly differentiated by income group, with negative consequences over the long term for the economic mobility of the poor. [...]