Russia significantly reduces arrears of wages

The arrears of wages to state employees were reduced to 900m rubles (about$28.45m) in Russia in August 2002, the Finance Ministry's department forrelations with state and public organization reported. The source stressedit was the lowest arrears over the past several years. As of the beginningof 2002, the arrears of wages to state employees were at 1.6bn rubles(about $51m at the current exchange rate).According to information from regional executive agencies, salaries due forvacations were fully repaid to employees of educational institutions. Thetotal volume of wage arrears to teachers reduced tenfold as compared to thebeginning of this year to 91m rubles ($2.88m). Moreover, 74 regions andrepublics of Russia reported they had almost no arrears of wages to stateemployees anymore..