Economists link availability of petrol to level of salaries of residents in Northern Caucasus

The rating, according to which residents of Ingushetia can buy only 570 litres of petrol per month with their income, does not indicate the high cost of petrol, but low incomes of the population, while it is impossible to measure the real incomes of residents due to the high level of the shadow economy, economist Natalia Zubarevich points out.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that, according to the data for the first half of 2022, residents of Ingushetia can afford to buy only 570 litres of petrol for their salary. This is the worst result in Russia. Residents of Chechnya and Kabardino-Balkaria can also purchase less than 600 litres, follows from the rating released by the “RIA Novosti” agency on August 1.

There are no increased prices of petrol in the North-Caucasian Federal District and the South Federal Districts, states Natalia Zubarevich, the director of the regional programme of the Independent Institute for Social Policy.

The rating is not about the prices of petrol, but about the average salary in the regions, Natalia Zubarevich emphasizes. “In the Caucasus, the average salary is low, and no one will be surprised by that fact,” Natalia Zubarevich commented.

According to her, it is impossible to say that according to the rating, which is closed by the republics of the North Caucasus Federal District (NCFD) and the South Federal District (SFD), the poorest residents of Russia live in Caucasus, since there is no data “on shadow incomes, which are very difficult to measure.”

“In Dagestan, the ‘Rosstat’ (Federal State Statistics Service) gives such an estimate of shadow incomes which almost doubles the income of the population. In Ingushetia – plus 38%. But these are just additional estimations. It is almost impossible to measure the real incomes of residents of the republics of Northern Caucasus due to the high share of the shadow sector of the economy,” Natalia Zubarevich noted.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 2, 2022 at 04:27 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.