The monthly publication of macroeconomic statistics by Rosstat was again not without a scandal.
Caught up in fraudulent income figures last year, and then unexpectedly discovered $ 10 billion in additional GDP and 6-year record economic growth, Rosstat on Tuesday for some unknown reason removed data on real disposable income of citizens from the report "On social and economic development" …
In the original version, the survey, which was released on the eve of President Vladimir Putin's message to the Federal Assembly, contained only salary figures.
Half an hour later, Rosstat replaced the report on its website, nevertheless deciding to report the final figure for January, which, obviously, will not fit into the logic of the economic "breakthrough" in the president's message.
According to Rosstat, in January, the Russians became poorer by another 1.3% - this is how income adjusted for inflation and mandatory payments decreased.
On average, citizens of the Russian Federation lived in January on 24,496 rubles a month, or 790 rubles a day.
In nominal terms, revenues increased by 4.2%, or 987 rubles. However, a sharp jump in inflation, which exceeded 5% due to the new VAT and higher gasoline prices, devalued the entire increase.
The growth of wages in real terms has practically stopped: on average, working Russians received 41,120 rubles a month, which is 2,103 rubles more than a year ago. However, taking into account inflation, only 0.2% of this increase remained.
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The salary arrears have sharply increased: in a month the enterprises underpaid their employees 291 million rubles, and the total debt reached 2.711 billion rubles, exceeding the indicators not only at the beginning of the year (2.42 billion), but also in February last year (2.676 billion rubles).
Population incomes have been falling for the sixth year in a row: cumulatively since 2013, people have become poorer by 12%. The total purchasing power of consumers has decreased by 5 trillion rubles a year.
A quick return to pre-crisis living standards is not visible even at the level of official forecasts. The long-term baseline scenario of the Ministry of Economic Development, calculated until 2036, assumes that salaries in Russia will grow by only 2.4-2.6% per year.
In 2018 prices, in 18 years, according to the Ministry of Economic Development, Russians will earn an average of 67,500 rubles. In dollar terms, salaries will add 43% to an average of $ 900 per month.
This is less than the citizens of Hungary ($ 1082), Poland ($ 1147) or the Czech Republic ($ 1261.1) earned last year.