in 1030 municipalities of the Russian Federation, inflation has outpaced wage growth in 2022 – Kommersant

The consumer price index outpaced the increase in average wages in 1,030 Russian municipalities (40% of the number of municipalities in the sample) at the end of 2022, follows from the study Forbes, based on Rosstat data. Thus, the purchasing power of the average salary in 1,030 municipalities decreased in 2022 compared to 2021.

The publication compared the consumer price index and the dynamics of average salary growth in 2,581 Russian municipalities for the period from 2018 to 2022. As the magazine reports, in 2018, inflation outpaced wage growth in 75 municipalities (the municipalities of three regions, including Moscow, are not represented in Rosstat data for 2017). In 2019, the consumer price index outpaced the increase in average wages in 190 municipalities, in 2020 – in 497, in 2021 – in 1340, according to a Forbes study.

The publication notes that Rosstat primarily uses the average salary for labor market statistics, and this is an inflated figure relative to the median salary, so the situation in reality is somewhat worse. The study notes that the growth in average wages may be associated with an increase in the incomes of high-paid workers; wages of low-paid workers are not growing as quickly. It is noted that during the period from 2019 to 2022, the median salary at all enterprises in Russia increased by 32.5%, and the average by 35.2%.

Forbes reports that from 2019 to 2022, accumulated inflation outpaced the increase in average wages in 315 municipalities in 63 regions of Russia. It follows from this that purchasing power in these municipalities in 2022 decreased compared to 2018. The leaders in the number of such municipalities are Moscow (36 municipalities out of 146 in the sample), St. Petersburg (28 out of 111), Dagestan (17 out of 51), Moscow region (17 out of 55), Chechnya (17 out of 17), Bashkortostan ( 14 out of 62) and Transbaikal Territory (14 out of 35).

According to September data from Rosstat, the average salary in the Russian Federation in July was 71,419 rubles. According to the results of a survey of online recruiting hh.ru, the proportion of Russians who do not have enough wages to meet basic needs grew from 25% in 2021 to 45% in 2023. For another 36% of respondents, their salaries barely cover basic needs. The Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-Term Forecasting in its October macroreview recorded a slowdown in the growth of real wages in Russia.

More details in the material “The shortage of workers can be compensated only by hopes”.

Erdni Kagaltynov