Thought for the day

Russian Living Standards
Held Back by Irredentist Putin


 
Last updated: 29 December 2024
 
Real GDP per capita growth per year has neared stagnation levels since 2008.

GDP Per Capita Growth
Index: 1999=100
Russian Living Standards - Held Back by Irredentist Putin
* GDP in Purchasing Power Parity terms with added estimates for the size of the informal economy and adjustments for out-of-date GDP base year data.


The breakup of the USSR was followed by rapid growth in living standards for four of the European countries now most threatened by Russian aggression: the Baltic States, and Poland by the end of 2024. Moving from collectivism to a market system was particularly successful for these countries, with real GDP per capita rising by 233% in Lithuania, 208% in Latvia, 147% in Estonia, and 150% in Poland by end of 2024. The World Economics Governance Index rates these four countries at 81.6, 79.7, 89.0, and 68.9 respectively compared to Russia’s lowly rating of 19.9.

The living standards of the average Russian benefited from the initial move from Socialism rising by 100% from 1998 to 2008, the year of the invasion of Georgia. Over the past decade, the average annual rise in real GDP per capita in Russia has averaged around 1.4% per year. Productive economic growth in Russia of benefit to citizens has been impacted by the imposition of sanctions and by the high level of GDP allocated to defence spending, in addition to the lack of freedom and corruption shown by the Governance indexes.

See the Russia Review...



More perspectives using World Economics data