Russia is a mess — the poverty rate is soaring

This goes into a lot of detail and includes charts and graphs.

In growing numbers, regional governments are failing to repay their federal or state bank-issued loans. The Ministry of Finance has admitted that more than a dozen regions have stopped paying off their government loans over the past two years, and four regions have reportedly defaulted on international loans. Mounting financial stress, moreover, has provoked backlash from some regional leaders.

Russia is a mess — the poverty rate is soaring and only 10 of 85 regions are stable ...
www.marketwatch.com › Economy & Politics › Stratfor
Jan 31, 2017 - One-quarter of Russian companies cut salaries in 2016, at times even skipping payments to their employees. The average monthly wage in Russia dropped 8% last year (after falling 9.5% in 2015) to under $450 — less than the mean monthly pay in China, Poland or Romania — while the poverty rate ...


EXCERPT:

An overwhelming problem

Russia’s vast territory is split into 85 official regions of varying shapes, sizes and designations. (Two of these regions, Sevastopol and Crimea, are not internationally recognized as Russian territory since Moscow annexed them from Ukraine in 2014.)


According to the Russian Finance Ministry, only 10 of Russia’s 85 official regions — most of them commodity producers and metropolitan areas with substantial tax bases — are economically or financially stable, down by half since 2015. Of the country’s remaining regions, 30 manage to scrape by because direct federal subsidies make up at least 33% of their revenues. Half of the $3.5 billion in subsidies that the Kremlin disburses each year goes to just 10 of those regions: Dagestan, Chechnya, Yakutia, Kamchatka, Crimea, Altai, Tuva, Buryatia, Stavropol and Bashkortostan. That leaves more than half of Russia’s regions struggling to fulfill their social obligations and meet the federal government’s demands for funding.

Seventy of Russia’s regions send 63% of the income they generate to the federal budget, keeping only the remaining 37%. The federal government, meanwhile, returns at most 20% of the money by way of subsidies and intergovernmental transfers.

The Kremlin has raised the amount of income it takes from these regions by 12% over the past four years, and it is set to increase its cut by another 2% this year.

To make matters worse, Moscow foisted much of the burden of social spending off on regional governments after the 2008-09 financial crisis. Russian President Vladimir Putin then issued a series of decrees in 2011 and 2012, after winning a third term in office, calling for various improvements in the country, from replacing dilapidated housing to increasing salaries for doctors and teachers. The so-called unfunded edicts added tens of billions of dollars to regional budgets. Just a few years later, the country found itself back in financial crisis.

CONTINUED
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/r...-85-regions-are-financially-stable-2017-01-31

 

FYI.............

 

Were it not for trillions in liquidity pumped into our system by the Fed, and access to cheap debt to roll over existing debt, we'd look worse than them. In fact the US defaulted on its global debt in 1971 when it crashed the Bretton Woods system

 

What do you have to say about the current situation?

One-quarter of Russian companies cut salaries in 2016, at times even skipping payments to their employees.

The average monthly wage in Russia dropped 8% last year (after falling 9.5% in 2015) to under $450 — less than the mean monthly pay in China, Poland or Romania

 

Where's the "Flat Tax Miracle" gone then?

 

Do they have a flat tax in Russia?

 

Back in the noughties it was the big thing! The "they're outdoing in the West in supply side economics" e.g. http://www.heritage.org/europe/commentary/russias-flat-tax-miracle

 

The article was published a year ago when the number of impoverished Russians rose by 300,000 because of economic sanctions on Russia. Putin promised to raise the minimum wage, which would affect 4 million.

 

The minimum wage, generally speaking, isn't a particularly effective anti-poverty device. Does this sound impressive to you?: "With an average 40-hour work week, a minimum wage in Russia per hour can be estimated at around RUB 48.75 (around USD 0.85 or EUR 0.80 per hour)"

 

OK margot2 What do you want done? give them money? Import a few dozen million people here, What?

 

Sounds like jumping to conclusions is what you do best.

 

Perhaps getting their presidential choice was the first stage of their grand plan?

 

Well, I am curious as to who will pay to rebuild Syria.

 

Have we finished yet with our "bomb for democracy" campaign? Syria has become an example of anti-Russian comment, while we ignore our part in humanitarian disaster.

 

The US had nothing to do with it. The collapse of Syria began in 2005 with five years of drought.

 

Which would fit with a spiritual awakening........

http://www.politicalforum.com/index...-comes-hope-edgar-cayce-and-bob-jones.512672/

Out of Russia comes hope, Edgar Cayce and Bob Jones

 

The idea that the US's bombing is somehow 'just fluffy' is ludicrous. Americans need to recognise how damaging their foreign policy really is

 

Said it already. They can't counterfeit like us. But every dog has its day.

 

Nothing, funny

 

Saving the world through 2 world wars, recreating the world in its image, and then policing it free of charge is damaging? How is that possible?

 

Our foreign policy had nothing to do with drought, the collapse of their agriculture and oil sectors.. or Assad's decision to kill protesters rather than initiate the reforms he promised for three years,

 

How many Syrians have died because of your bombs?

 

Russia lacks Republican capitalism, the Republican/protestant work ethic and religious values, and has too much corruption.

 

questions is, how many of the bad guys have been killed. The more the better.

 

Fewer than those killed by Russian (dropped) bombs and about 2% of the number of Syrians killed by the Russian-backed Assad regime.