Section 5. Social Sphere

Over 2013, the population’s real disposable income rose by 3.3%. The salary level in the budget-funded sphere was being raised at a high rate – which, however, proved to be insufficient to meet the targets set in the President of the Russian Federation's Executive Order of 7 May 2012, No. 597 'On Measures Aimed at the Implementation of Government Social Policy'. The income inequality index over the period January–September 2013 somewhat increased. The poverty level over the first 9 months of 2013 was 0.5 pp. above its level over the corresponding period of 2012, due in the main to the alterations introduced into the methodology applied for estimating the subsistence level. The impact of social transfers on the child poverty level in Russia is low by comparison with that in the European Union.