Russians have been told that their incomes are growing. But there is a nuance: only the rich are getting richer

The Bank of Russia presented a review in which it assessed household finances by comparing citizens' income and expenses for 2022 and 2024.

It turned out that the median income (the average value of household income. - Ed .) per member of a Russian family increased by 26.7% over two years, reaching 27,868 rubles.

How did they come up with such a bravura figure? They simply divided all incomes into decile groups. That's how they arrived at a median of just under 28 thousand rubles.

But the regulator adds: Russian citizens still have two main sources of income. The first is wages, the second is all types of social payments, including pensions for almost 40 million pensioners.

By the way, the conclusions of the Bank of Russia were previously confirmed by Rosstat: in the structure of monetary income of Russians for 2024, wages accounted for 62%, social payments accounted for 17.3%.

“The contribution of other sources becomes noticeable only in the highest-income decile groups,” the authors of the review clarify.

Let's translate - this is the same group of wealthy and rich people who own real estate, deposits, securities and other assets that directly affect well-being.

Overall, the level of optimism among citizens was almost the same as in 2013, when the country recovered from the economic crisis of 2008. The GDP did not cause any concerns back then (+4%), the deficit was surplus. Oil prices were rising and flowing for export. Everyone was swimming in money. Russians felt economic freedom and actively traveled abroad.

"Now, when the actual real incomes of the population are stagnating at best, it's high time to come out with a survey analysis comparing current incomes with those of several years ago. In the USSR, they also liked to compare the achieved indicators with 1913," economist Nikita Krichevsky noted, not without irony, in his Telegram channel.

He added that the Central Bank’s statistical conclusion is far from reality.

The authors of the study recorded an increase in income in all the groups studied. The growth was 13-17%. The greatest increase in income was recorded in the group of 10% of the least well-off households. But, pay attention to the numbers!

Last year, the wallet of such a poor family (from the first decile group) turned out to be 12,250 rubles per month per person. And this is not even about the poverty level, but about the level of physical survival. Not to mention that this is below the official poverty threshold in the Russian Federation: according to Rosstat , 10.5 million people (7.2% of the country's population) were officially below the poverty line last year, whose monthly income did not exceed 15.5 thousand rubles.

In 2022, such households had an income of 9 thousand rubles per family member. The median expenses, according to data for 2024, amounted to 13,094 rubles, that is, the subsistence "debit and credit" for poor Russians does not match.

In contrast to the poor, in the group of 10% of households with the highest income, this same income grew to 74 thousand rubles against 58 thousand two years earlier. Expenses for "each mouth" in such a family amounted to 52,633 rubles. This group of respondents accumulated fat faster than all.

The median income of families with children increased from 18 to 25 thousand rubles. A family of pensioners last year received 25 thousand rubles per person instead of 21 thousand rubles. Childless families increased their income from 25 to 35 thousand rubles per person.

The growth is explained simply: the situation was “cured” by social transfers. The first three groups with a per capita income of 12, 17 and 20 thousand rubles per month directly depend on social support. The share of pensions, benefits and other social payments and compensations in the budget of such families increased to 50%.

“This may explain the higher growth in real incomes in 2024 among the least well-off groups of the population, whose labor income remains low relative to other groups,” the Central Bank explained.

Investment strategist Azat Valeev is inclined to explain the overall growth in the well-being of Russians by the fact that wealthy citizens of the Russian Federation have become even richer after Western businesses left the country.

"Plus government incentives for certain areas related to the military-industrial complex, that's where the growth came from. But the majority, most likely, are in the minus," comments Valeev.

The Central Bank's study says that over two years, all ten deciles have registered a significant increase in spending in real terms. It amounted to 10-22% depending on the income group.

At the same time, the three pillars of expenses - food, housing and utilities, non-food items - exceed all other types of expenses in the first six decile groups. And these six include Russian families with incomes from 12 to 30 thousand rubles per person.

And only in the group of 10% of households with the highest incomes did spending on services (excluding utilities) and household goods increase.

If we compare the spending of the rich and the first six groups (those in which monthly incomes vary from 12 to 30 thousand rubles per person), it turns out that 10% of wealthy households spend 16.2 thousand rubles per month on food for one person. The first "six" - from 6.6 thousand rubles to 10.8 thousand rubles.

The share of expenses on services (excluding housing and communal services) ranges from 1.7 thousand rubles for the poor to 9.6 thousand rubles for the wealthy. A rich person replenishes his non-food basket by 8 thousand rubles every month. But the majority of the country can spend only 1.3 to 2.4 thousand rubles on similar needs.

Novye Izvestia reported that Russia has seen an increase in income inequality for the second year. The Gini scale rose to 0.408 by the end of 2024, compared to 0.405 the year before.

Oleg Abelev, head of the analytical department of the investment company Rikom-Trust, PhD in economics, reminds that the Gini coefficient shows how the income or national wealth of the state is distributed in proportion to the population.

"Basically, the scale of official incomes is compared. If people are below the poverty line, but are officially employed, then they are taken into account," the expert explains.

He explains the increase in inequality by the fact that a large number of people have become recipients of funds from the SVO.

"This kind of stratification resulted when, without official labor income, the state helped with money. This increased the growth of inequality a little," the expert concluded.