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4.5 Labour and income
4.5.1 Labour market, unemployment dynamics
Unemployment remains stable and finished the year at 4.6%, the same level it has been for the three months priorl.
4.5.2 Income dynamics
Real disposable incomes in Russia increased by 0.8% in 2019, the growth accelerating from 0.1% seen in 2018 and beating the expectations of 0.1% of the Ministry of Economic Development, the latest data released by RosStat statistics agency shows.
As reported by bne IntelliNews, recent social spending measures announced by President Vladimir Putin, the new government wired for execution of the National Projects, and the appointment of the pro-demand ex-EconMin Maxim Oreshkin as Presidential economic advisor are all expected to support demand in 2020.
The 2019 real disposable income growth was already the fastest since 2013, although in real terms the incomes since lag behind the pre-Crimea levels.
In 2014-2017 disposable income dived by 8.4, but the Ministry of Economic Development expects further disposable income recovery of up to 1.5-2% in 2020 given the new social spending measures.
The analysts surveyed by RBC business daily attributed the increase in 2019 to record-low inflation and faster budget spending in the second half of the
32 RUSSIA Country Report February 2020 www.intellinews.com
