Rosstat adjusts Russian poverty level for 2022 to 9.8% from 10.5%

MOSCOW. May 3 (Interfax) - The Russian Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) has lowered its estimate of the poverty level in Russia in 2022 to 9.7% from the preliminary 10.5% assessment that it gave in March.

Rosstat posted the adjusted estimate on its website.

It said 14.3 million Russians lived below the poverty line in 2022, compared with 15.3 million in the preliminary estimate.

The poverty level was 11.0% in 2021 with 16.0 million living below the poverty line.

"The preliminary estimate was adjusted primarily due to an analysis of the results of a sample survey of household income and participation in social programs for 2022, carried out by Rosstat in January-February 2023 in all regions of the country and covering 60,000 households and more than 100,000 direct recipients of income from work and social benefits. Further information was also obtained from administrative sources and banking statistics, and retail trade and catering data were adjusted," Rosstat said.

The poverty level fell to an all-time low last year. The previous low was 10.7% in 2012. The poverty level then began to rise, reaching 13.4% in 2015, before falling back again.

Russian President Vladimir Putin in a May 2018 executive order tasked the government with halving the level of poverty by 2024: this would have to fall to 6.5% or less if compared with the 2017 level, when poverty was 12.9% according to adjusted Rosstat data.

Putin signed a new decree in July 2020 on national goals to 2030, according to which the poverty level must halve compared with 2017 by 2030 and not 2024.