Belarus is the poorest country. Belarus is among the three poorest countries in Europe. And at this time

Request text: " I would like more information about Belarus. All sorts of “independent” media tell either nothing or lies about us. I would like the truth about our calm, truly independent and benevolent Blue-eyed."

Let's continue, now this is not a very positive post... although I read your posts about meat consumption and the number of cars in Belarus - but there is such information...

2012 - Belarus ranked 10th poorest country in the world.

Business Insider has published its annual World Poverty Index 2012. Greece, which is experiencing the worst economic times in its history, was not included in the list of the most unfortunate countries, but Belarus was in 10th place in the ranking. Record inflation in 2011 - 52.4% - allowed Belarus to fall so low in this rather controversial economic rating. In addition, experts estimate that more than half of Belarusians (53.4%) live below the poverty line.

The level of welfare of a country is calculated based on the number of unemployed and the rate of inflation.

That is, the more rapidly the national currency falls in price, the lower the state falls in international financial ratings, writes “Stock Leader”.

Zimbabwe was recognized as the poorest country in 2012. In this country, almost 100% of the population lives below the extreme poverty line, and the unemployment rate has reached 95%.

It is worth adding that according to Belstatan data for May 2012, the highest salaries in Belarus are in the Soligorsk district - more than 5.5 million rubles. And the lowest are in Kormyanskoye. Here average salary in the first quarter of this year amounted to 1.985 million.

2013 - Belarus is already in the 5th place of the poorest countries in the world.

The Misery Index-2013 compiled by the company includes 197 countries, but Belarus is the only one European countries in the top five. Another post-Soviet republic, Turkmenistan (4th place), made it into the TOP 5 of the ranking. The ranking also includes the Serbian province of Kosovo, recognized by the United States and the European Union (9th place). In 20th place is Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to the explanation for the publication, when compiling the rating, Business Insider was guided by the methodology of economist Arthur Orkum, distributing countries based on the results of summing up inflation and unemployment data.

It should be noted that according to official data, less than 1% of the total economically active population is registered in Belarus as unemployed, but independent experts do not consider this indicator to reflect Belarusian realities. However, the American company assumed 1% unemployment and 70% inflation.

According to Belstat, in 2012 inflation was just under 23%. In January 2013, the unemployment rate in Belarus, according to Belstat, was also below 1% (0.7% at the end of January 2012 and 0.6% in January 2013), and inflation did not exceed 3% (with an annual forecast inflation at 12%).

As Alexander Lukashenko said at a meeting of the Council of Ministers on March 1, "since the beginning of 2011, the Belarusian ruble has devalued by 2.9 times. At the same time, consumer prices have increased by 2.6 times. Including food prices - by almost 3 times."

2013 - Belarus is second in the ranking of the poorest countries in Europe in terms of purchasing power of the population.

According to the GfK study "Purchasing Power in Europe: 2012-2013", the lowest purchasing power is among residents of Moldova, Belarus and Kosovo.

On Wednesday, GfK’s research “Purchasing power in Europe: 2012-2013” ​​was published, which analyzed this indicator in 42 countries of the continent. It turned out that the richest in Europe are citizens of Liechtenstein. In 2012, they have a purchasing power of 57 thousand euros per capita.

According to ukrinform, the top ten European countries with the highest level of purchasing power of the population also include Luxembourg, Denmark, Austria, Sweden, Germany, France and Belgium.

Let us remind you that 42 countries “participated” in the study. So, places No. 40 and 41 were divided among themselves, which did not even celebrate the fifth anniversary of independence, Kosovo, as well as Belarus. Purchasing power in the countries is approximately 2 thousand euros per person. The situation is worst in Moldova. The average resident of the country can afford to spend no more than 1,257 euros per year on goods and services.

At the same time, the average level of purchasing power in Europe, according to GfK, is 12 thousand 802 euros, which corresponds to the capabilities of citizens of a country such as Spain.

Salary in Belarus

It turned out that the highest incomes are now in Poland - already under a thousand euros. On average, Estonians earn 80 euros less.

The salaries of Russians were surprising: on average, they turned out to be higher than the salaries of Latvians and Lithuanians. And Ukrainians received an average of 30 euros more than Belarusians in December.

Unfortunately, our salaries turned out to be the smallest. Moreover, even if on average we earn the promised 500 dollars (or 375 euros), we will not catch up with the Europeans, but we will be ahead of the Ukrainians.

Belarus is the most inaccessible, unknown and underrated country in Europe

One of the most reputable publishing houses, Lonely Planet, has not yet published a single separate guide to Belarus. In a 2000 guide to three countries: Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, the authors allocated 39 of almost 800 pages to Belarusian attractions and routes.

There are other “mass graves”: the Lonely Planet guide to Eastern Europe, where Belarus neighbors 16 countries, and the guide to budget European destinations, of which there are 45 in the guide, including Belarus (the latest 7th edition was published in October 2011) . If desired, you can download a pdf version of the chapter on Belarus from both guides for just three British pounds.

By the way, according to Lonely Planet, the country is primarily known for the dictator-President Lukashenko and the tragic consequences of the Chernobyl accident, as well as for being a “Soviet-era nature reserve” and a “farm for raising supermodels.” At the same time, among the few interesting facts about Belarus Marc Chagall is located several positions below... kvass. However, another publishing house that enjoys authority among foreign tourists, Dorling Kindersley, completely ignores the existence of Belarus.

In the world's largest online store Amazon, you can also find, for example, the 2000 Insight Guides guide to Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, where several pages are devoted to Grodno and Minsk. Last year, the first guide to Belarus in Arabic was published, prepared as a joint project of the Italian publishing house Nur Edizione and the Belarusian “Riftur”. The first guide to Belarus in many years, “Step by Step,” published in Russia, was published not so long ago by the publishing house “JEM”. At the moment, another Russian specialized publishing house, Polyglot, is also preparing to release a guide to Belarus.

However, traditional paper guides are becoming less and less relevant every year, and many tourist information portals are appearing on the Internet that provide advice completely free of charge. True, the quality of information sometimes leaves much to be desired. For example, on one of these portals, which the Google search engine produces among the first 10 results for the query “Belarus travel guide,” they still advise having dinner in the restaurant on the top floor of the Belarus Hotel to enjoy national cuisine and a magnificent panorama of the city. Moreover, the authors of this online guide with the “unpretentious” name Europe Travel Guide advise buying a nesting doll and local delicacies in Belarus as a souvenir: vodka, caviar, chocolate, “Soviet champagne” and marshmallows, although in the “About Us” section it is said that one of the co-authors of this online guide was born and raised in Minsk.

Swiss bank Credit Suisse has released its annual Global Wealth Report. The first three places in the ranking were taken by Switzerland, Australia and the USA. Experts included Belarus in the group of poor countries with a wealth level per adult below 5 thousand dollars.

Photo: Olga Shukaylo, TUT.BY

Experts included countries such as Ukraine, Mali, Niger, Chad, Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Nigeria in the same group with Belarus.

According to the online publication finance.ua, Ukraine and Belarus share 123rd place in the ranking out of 140 countries: per capita welfare in the two countries is $1,563 per adult.

Let us note that Belarus was previously classified in the group of poor countries.

The richest countries are those where the per capita wealth exceeds $100 thousand.

Most rich country Switzerland is again in the top 10 of the world, with just over 530 thousand dollars per adult resident. Australia took second place ($411 thousand), third place went to the USA ($404 thousand). Next came Belgium, Norway and New Zealand.

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16:23 — REGNUM In Belarus, more and more people live in extreme poverty. Thus, according to the National Statistical Committee, based on the results of January-June 2017, the number of people with a level of per capita disposable resources below the subsistence level in the country increased by half a percent. Such data were presented in Belstat on September 26.

According to the results of the first half of 2017, 6% of residents of Belarus are low-income. In January-June 2016 this figure was 5.5%. The National Statistical Committee of the Republic made these conclusions based on data from a sample study of households by standard of living.

Since the beginning of 2017, the share of the Belarusian population living below the poverty line has increased in all regions of the country. The majority of low-income citizens are located in the Brest region: here 8.5% of the population lives on resources below the subsistence level.

The fewest low-income citizens in Belarus are in Minsk (1.7%). In the Mogilev region, this figure has not changed at all since last year and amounted to 7.6% of the population.

According to August results, the Belarusian economy employs about 4 million people. The number of registered unemployed at the end of August 2017 was 29.7 thousand people. The registered unemployment rate is 0.7% of the labor force, according to data from the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Belarus.

As previously reported IA REGNUM, the number of low-income and unemployed people in Belarus has been growing alarmingly recently. The socio-economic crisis in the country has been ongoing since 2011. However, in 2015 it worsened due to falling wages and a decrease in the number of jobs, which was caused by the crisis in Ukraine and European and American sanctions against Russia. The Belarusian “food offshore”, created to transport prohibited “sanctioned goods” to Russia, could not compensate for these losses. All this is against the background of the chosen course of the Belarusian authorities towards “market socialism”.

In 2015, the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko signed the decree “On the Prevention of Social Dependency,” which is popularly simply called the decree “on parasites.” However, such a document in the conditions of capitalism is not capable of changing the social situation in the country in better side. Now the real unemployed who cannot find a job also fall under the “parasite” classification. And there are more and more such people. Most of them are not officially registered, since the current state system It is not profitable for the person himself to do this (only low-skilled and very low-paid work is offered). Therefore, according to official statistics, the number of purely unemployed and low-income people is not very large. In reality, this figure may be many times higher.

Without money it will not be possible to reform the economy, and without reform there will be no money.

According to Belstat, compared to last year, the material resources of households (simply speaking, families) increased by an average of about $80. But does this mean that people are living better?

According to a Belstat study, in the first half of 2018, available resources per household amounted to 1,170 rubles per month, including in cities and towns - 1,250.1 rubles per month, in rural areas - 962.9 rubles per month.

In the first half of 2017, these figures were lower: 1014.1 rubles on average per household, 1085.8 rubles in cities, 825.3 rubles in villages.

It turns out that the last year On average, monthly household resources increased by 156 rubles (approximately $80).

What did you spend it on?

One household spent an average of 1,104.8 rubles per month, of which 831.5 rubles (75.3%) were consumer expenses. 40.3% of funds were spent on food, 30.6% on non-food products, and 26% on services. A year earlier, the share of expenses for food was 42%, for the purchase of things - 29.9%, for services - 25.1%.

Reducing the share of food expenses is a good trend. For comparison: in 1995, Belarusians ate more than 60% of their income, and by the end of 2010 this figure dropped to 36.8%. But a series of crises in the first half of the 2010s again forced Belarusians to spend more on food. In 2015, this figure was 41.9%, in 2016 - 41.5%.

Given that the share of food costs is decreasing, we are still as far away from the developed European countries as the moon. For example, the figure for Luxembourg is 8.6%, Switzerland - 12%.

The share of spending on food is likely to continue to decline in the future. But not because of a decrease in food prices, but due to a reformatting of the cost structure due to an increase in tariffs for housing and communal services.

By the end of the year, the tariffs at which the population pays for housing and communal services will cover 76.3% of their cost. Such data are presented in the latest issue of the Economic Bulletin magazine, published by the Scientific Research Economic Institute (REI) of the Ministry of Economy.

“According to the Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade, as a result of rising tariffs, as well as measures taken to reduce costs, by the end of 2018, the level of reimbursement by the population of costs for the provision of housing and communal services will reach 76.3%,”- note specialists from the Scientific Research Institute of the Ministry of Economy.

In 2017, this figure was 69.7%. Naturally, an increase in the share will entail an increase in household costs for utilities.

Who falls into poverty?

In fact, the categories classified by the state as the poorest segments of the population were determined by a presidential decree signed in June of this year. The document expanded the categories of citizens entitled to non-cash housing subsidies.

Along with non-working pensioners and non-working adult disabled people, non-cash subsidies will be provided to families raising children under three years of age, disabled children under 18 years of age, as well as those receiving benefits for the care of disabled people of the first group and persons over 80 years of age.

However, this list does not include the unemployed, among whom the risk of poverty is very high. At the end of July 2018, the number of registered (registered at the labor exchange) unemployed people was 16.6 thousand people, which is 46.9% (almost half) less than as of August 1, 2017 (31.2 thousand people).

However, adequate calculation methods indicate more significant unemployment figures - almost 300 thousand people according to data for 2017.

All these people remain outside the scope of attention of the state in terms of providing assistance in paying for utility bills. Unemployment benefits for those officially registered (the maximum amount is two basic amounts - 49 rubles) cannot be taken seriously as a source of income.

Last year, according to statistical data, the share of the poor population increased slightly, with the exception of those living in rural areas, where they survive largely on household plots.

Who may be trapped in poverty?

Natalya Ryabova, director of the School of Young Managers of Public Administration SYMPA, which operates the BIPART research project and the Kosht ​​Urada website dedicated to public finance, notes that the state supports those in need, but not on the scale we would like, and not always those who who should be.

Thus, according to the Ministry of Labor, in the first half of 2018, 47.68 million rubles of state targeted social assistance were allocated, which were received by 161,831 people, the majority (75,095 people) in the form of benefits for the purchase of diapers. 45,653 people received monthly benefits, for which the state spent 12.38 million rubles, that is, about 271 rubles per person for six months or 45 rubles per month.

Traditionally, the main recipients of monthly and one-time social benefits are large and single-parent families raising minor children. Last year they made up 67.4% of the total number of recipients of these benefits. The share of single pensioners and disabled people is 4.7% (6.4 thousand people).

“Families with not one but several children traditionally find themselves in a worse situation than others. I would also note the villagers, who largely survive due to additional work on their plots, and all the single pensioners left without family support. Students who are forced to live only on a scholarship, the unemployed, whose benefit amount is at the level of statistical error - all of them are at risk of poverty.”

Despite the obvious vulnerability of some categories, the expert still believes that it is more objective to allocate state assistance based not on social category, but on financial situation.

She cited as an example the subsidization of housing and communal services, which is important for vulnerable groups, but in “In some cases, taking into account the calculation of the amount of subsidies per apartment area, not only the poor, but also quite wealthy citizens receive support.”

Another example is pumping money into unprofitable enterprises instead of supporting the unemployed at a decent level. Ryabova recalled that the possibility of unemployment insurance was actively discussed in Belarus, but the issue remained hanging.

According to the expert, it has become obvious to the authorities that unemployment insurance in the form of another tax will become an additional burden on the wage fund of enterprises, whose social taxes are already high.

“So support for inefficient production continues. This suitcase without a handle would have been thrown away long ago, if not for the threat that crowds of people would find themselves on the street without a livelihood. In essence, the poverty trap is that there is a vicious circle - without money it will not be possible to reform the economy, and without reforms there will be no money,”- concluded Natalya Ryabova.

Purchasing Power Europe 2017, in which it analyzed revenues in 42 European countries. The average for Europe was 13,937 euros per year, or 1,161 euros per month.

Residents of Liechtenstein have the best incomes - 63,267 euros per year. And the worst situation is with the Ukrainians - where the average annual income, according to GfK, is 949 euros.

Belarusians, alas, are among the three countries with the lowest income. According to a German research company, the average Belarusian lives on 2,558 euros per year, or 213 euros per month.

The description of the study states that the data are taken mainly from national statistical agencies of different countries, which adhere to the European counting system adopted in 2010 (ESA 2010). Regarding our country, GfK clarified that they use Belstat data.

It must be said that in October, according to Belstat, the average salary in Belarus was 841 rubles, or 364 euros at the average rate of the National Bank. But we only had such a low salary as in the ranking in March 2006 (216 euros).

The experts who worked on the study may also have taken the median salary (see "STAY IN THE KNOW!"). The last time it was calculated was in November 2016, and then it was 528.3 denominated rubles, or 252 euros. This is much closer to the figure announced by GfK.

STAY IN TOUCH!

What is the median salary?

It shows how much most people actually earn. For example, if one receives 100 rubles, the second 200, the third - 300, and the fourth - 2000, then the average salary will be 650 rubles, and the median - 200. Most often, national statistical agencies calculate the median salary.

AND AT THIS TIME

Trade unions: in Belarus, almost 200 organizations did not pay wages on time

The report says that in October of this year, 178 organizations across the country did not pay salaries to their employees on time.

According to the FPB, government organizations were also among the debtors. For example, in housing department No. 1 of the Oktyabrsky district of Minsk, the deadlines for paying salaries and vacation pay are constantly violated, and there are issues with the final payment upon dismissal. The trade unionists give the following reason: lack of working capital, delay in transfers from the treasury.

Thus, the Minsk Experimental Furniture Plant has overdue wages for August and September of the current year. During these months, the employer paid employees only 1.5 times the cost of living. A similar situation exists in regional agricultural construction organizations in the Grodno region. Among the most problematic are also the organizations “Unibox”, “Stroyka Veka” and LLC “ Promstroyexport».