Page 53 - RusRPTAug21

Rosstat’s biannual study on Russians’ financial situation found that three quarters of Russians are experiencing some kind of financial trouble. Respondents evaluated that they need about 61,000 rubles ($819) a month to get by, only about 2000 rubles ($27) more than respondents indicated that they needed in 2018, despite the cost of consumer goods rising faster than wages during this period. Half of Russians cannot afford an unexpected expense, such as a medical emergency. In 2019, around 17% of Russians reported not being able to eat fruit at any point during the year due to financial constraints.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on a lump sum payment to families with children and people with disabilities, the press service of the head of state said. To assign and receive payment, the concerned categories should contact the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation before November 1, 2021, Russian media reported. Putin ordered authorities to provide a one-time amount of 10 thousand rubles to citizens of the Russian Federation, who fulfill some of these conditions: one of the parents (adoptive parents, guardians, trustees) of children between the ages of 6 and 18 who have Russian citizenship (provided that the child reaches the age of 6 no later than September 1, 2021); The second category are people with disabilities, aged 18-23, with Russian citizenship, and students in basic general education programs, or one of their parents (legal representatives). A lump sum payment is made for each child or person with disabilities. The money can be received by one of the parents, or legal representatives of the recipients of payments.
Personal bankruptcies doubled and creditors' claims against companies by a third. With the end of the bankruptcy moratorium and the resumption of the work of the courts, the number of bankruptcies in Russia has doubled to grow. The number of personal bankruptcies in the first half of the year doubled the same figure for the previous year and turned out to be more than in the whole of 2019.
The number of corporate bankruptcies is still lower than before the pandemic, but it has grown for the first time in four years. At the same time, experts expect that the main surge in bankruptcies is still ahead.
In January-June 2021, the courts declared 88 thousand Russians bankrupt, including individual entrepreneurs, RBC reports, citing data from the Unified Federal Register of Bankruptcy Information. This is 2.1 times more than in the first half of last year, when 42.7 thousand Russians were declared insolvent, and more than in the entire pre-pandemic 2019. The first half of this year provided almost a quarter (23.7%) of all personal bankruptcies of Russians - since the start of the procedure in 2015, the courts declared 370 thousand citizens insolvent.
The number of bankruptcies among legal entities is also growing - over the six months of the year it increased by 9.2% compared to last year, to 4.9 thousand, Kommersant reports. This is 19.2% less than in the first half of the pre-pandemic year 2019, but the trend is changing: corporate bankruptcies began to grow for the first time in four years. In 2018–2020, their number decreased. The number of publications of
53 RUSSIA Country Report August 2021 www.intellinews.com