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.
[...] As a conclusion, we can observe that the comparison of the consumption structures between poor and rich households confirms the existence of links between revenue and consumption structure, because 10% of poorest households dedicate more than two third of their budget to food expenses including out side meals and beverage), whereas 10% of the richest households dedicate not even the half of their budget in food expenses Consumption structure (source : Goskomstat) Territorial inequalities and poverty It is important to consider that Russia is the largest country in the world, and at the same time the density of population is low people per km2), and its distribution is very uneven. [...]
[...] A unique feature of poverty in Russia is that many people may have low incomes and consumption levels, but live in expensive apartments in the centre of Moscow and can receive benefits. The public sector is in need of restructuring and modernization. Public sector expenditure on health, measured as a share of DGP, have fluctuated between and since 1995, with some drops after the 1998 crisis. Russia's public sector spending for health care, as measured by share of GDP, is low if compared with EU countries, which spend from 6 to of GDP on average, but not significantly low compared to middle-income countries. [...]
[...] 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. The rural population, those living in small and remote towns, the children, the pensioners, the unemployed, those living in household with primary education or less, and those living in certain regions of the federation are the groups in population that have the highest rates of poverty. [...]
[...] Improvement in the government delivery of social service in the sectors that directly affect the poor is an element of a poverty reduction strategy. There are four reasons for the importance of addressing the social policies as a key element in a poverty reduction strategy. 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. [...]
[...] In the World Bank's Poverty Assessment Report on Russia, researchers concluded that the situation in Russia had essentially improved. Since the poverty levels peaked in 1999 at poverty was cut in half by 2002 to About 30 million people have improved their financial standing; however the number of people in poverty is still high - every fifth Russian lives well below the official poverty line Inequalities Wealth inequalities A cursory examination of the social situation in modern Russia reveals a deeply divided society. [...]
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