Interfax: Poverty in Russia rises 0.5 pp in H1 2013

MOSCOW. Nov 22 (Interfax) – The level of poverty in Russia rose to 13.0% in the first half of 2013, from 12.5% a year previously, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said.

Rosstat said 18.4 million Russians were living below the poverty line, up 0.7 million from the same period of last year.

Rosstat estimates the subsistence threshold at 7,372 rubles per person per month in the second quarter of 2013, up from 6,385 rubles a year previously.

Per capita income in Q2 2013 was 24,807 rubles a month, or nearly 3.4 times the subsistence threshold, compared with 22,262 rubles and 3.5 times in Q2 2012.