Russian ministry improves real wages 2016 growth forecast to 0.5%

MOSCOW, Dec 26 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Economic Development Ministry has improved its real wage growth forecast for 2016 to 0.5% from previously expected 0.3%, the ministry said on Monday in a monitoring report on the situation in the country’s economy in January–November.

Real wages will grow on the back of a slowdown of inflation, the ministry said, adding that real wages have grown in November in annual terms for the fourth month in a row.

“The data excluding seasonality shows almost flat dynamics of real wages since September,” the ministry said.

But the ministry worsened its estimate for contraction of real disposable income of Russians in the year to a 5.8% fall from 5.6%.The Federal State Statistics Service previously improved its estimate of the annual contraction in 2015 to 3.2% from 4.3%, and it had an impact on dynamics of incomes in 2016, the ministry said.

In November, the real disposable income contracted only 5.6% on the year compared with a 6% decrease in October, but seasonally adjusted figures showed that the factor fell 1.7% on the month in November, the ministry added.

End