Wages To Increase By 36% In Dollars In Russia In 2001

Wages will increase by 36% in dollars in Russia in 2001, Ivan Materov, first deputy economic development and trade minister, said at a seminar devoted to discussing a report on the social and economic situation in Russia by OECD. It is planned that the average wage will increase by 11-12% in dollars in 2002. According to Materov, the increase in individual incomes facilitated the increase of the share of consumer demand in the GDP by 1.5 times in 2001. At the same time, the deputy minister underlined that the rise in incomes had been faster than the industrial output growth, which is one of the factors in inflation, which according to the forecast by the Economic Development Ministry, will be decreasing in the next few years and will be at 8-10% in 2004. The main factors in the reduction of the inflation rate in 2001 (the inflation rate was 1% in the third quarter of 2001 compared to 4% in the third quarter of 2000) are an increase in the supply of foods and consumer products and a decrease in the population's expectations for inflation.