Putin called the reduction of poverty to 10.5% “movement in the right direction”

Reducing the poverty rate to 10.5% is, though small, a move in the right direction, declared Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects.

“As a result, in the third quarter, the poverty rate dropped to 10.5%. Of course, this is a small movement, but a movement in the right direction,” he said.

The President emphasized that the incomes of the poorest part of the population increased by an average of 27.8% in nominal terms, which made it possible to slightly reduce the level of poverty and inequality.

Among the important social support measures taken by the state, Putin singled out the decision on monthly payments to families with children aged 8 to 17, which affected 5 million children, as well as the advanced indexation of the subsistence minimum, the minimum wage and pensions by 10%.

On reducing the level of poverty following the results of nine months Putin informed November 30, stressing that for the same period last year the figure was 11%.

“The decline is really small. But it is important that in the current difficult economic situation there is such a definite positive trend. It needs to be preserved,” he said at the time.

On November 30, Putin also instructed to index the salaries of state employees in January 2023, as well as to allocate the necessary financial assistance to those regions that need it.

According to preliminary data from Rosstat for the first half of 2022, approximately 18.9 million people, or 13% of the population of the entire country, resides in Russia below the poverty line. At the end of 2021, this share was at the level of 11% (approximately 16.1 million people), which was the lowest value since 2013, when the number of people living below the poverty line was 15.5 million people.