the Volume of private financial state of the Russians for the last 20 years has increased by 16 times: from $100 billion to $1.6 trillion. More than a quarter of the money stored in offshore accounts, says a study by the international company Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Experts believe the figure is very conditional. What’s $1.6 trillion, if the capital outflow from the country reached in some years to hundreds of billions of dollars? — they ask a question.
Under aggregate private wealth BCG means the total assets of the adult population — cash and deposits, bonds, shares and investment funds, pensions and life insurance. The researchers write, which is faster than the Russians grew rich in the period from 1999 to 2014, then the average annual growth of 13.5 per cent. Between 2014 and 2019 he fell to 11.7%, and in 2018-2019 — up to 10.4%. As for the figure of $1.6 trillion, then that’s 90% of Russia’s GDP for last year (110 trillion rubles). The report predicts that under the influence of the pandemic growth of personal wealth will drop to 4-6% in the next five years.
All of these impressive figures should be considered in the context of other topics — economic inequalities, the gap in income between different segments of the population and indicate the independent experts. Our country is one of the world leaders in the concentration of wealth in the hands of a minority. According to estimates by Credit Suisse, the share of 10% of the wealthiest citizens accounted for 83% of private wealth (in the US — 76%). Individuals with a personal capital of more than $1 million owns 55.8% of the total volume.
Colleagues from BCG obviously poskromnichal: in reality, the aggregate amount of private wealth in Russia can be twice more, says the Director of the Institute of strategic analysis FBK Igor Nikolaev. According to him, on the background of the annually flowing out of the country tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars figure of $1.6 looks unconvincing. And that money is distributed unevenly and unjustly, — that is evident. The bad thing is that the capital withdrawn from the economy, is not its development, and individual people. But he could generate new revenue, provide jobs and decent salaries. When the majority of citizens regularly loses a certain amount, it takes motivation, productivity.
the System of income distribution is not efficient enough in all countries with a capitalist system. Hence stratification. The question is, which part of the capital the rich invest in their country. This percentage is considerably less than in the US, says chief investment strategist “BCS” Maxim Shein. And according to Executive Director Klopenko Group Dmitry Ivanov, evaluation of BCG cover not all foreign assets of Russians. The expert recalled that in the domestic stock exchanges is dominated by the capital of non-residents and all members of the venture��on the market work in a foreign jurisdiction, even with Russian startups. Russia is widely perceived as a resource colony with a wild laws: it is possible to earn something, but certainly nothing to store, because there are no guarantees of protection of private property, the expert said.
“Over the past five or six years, the social chasm we have reached absolutely monstrous magnitude — says a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences Ruslan Grinberg. — On the one hand, incomes are stagnating, on the other, rising stock markets, and this trend gives rise to mass poverty. The government strictly protects the rich, while continuing to build a kind of anarcho-bureaucratic capitalism. Meanwhile, at the time the government has missed a historic chance for normal development. Strategic sectors (oil, gas, timber, metals, fertilizers) were given “for nothing” individuals. And it was necessary to leave the state of these “chickens that lays the Golden eggs”. Hence — all of our current problems.”
the Property gap between rich and poor has become in the last decade, the norm in Europe and in the United States. And it is unlikely to decline, says a senior analyst “Finam” Sergey Drozdov. The situation is extremely unhealthy, generating social upheaval on a planetary scale. In Russia it is aggravated by the absolute domination and dictates of the state in the economy. Even in a crisis, the income is distributed unevenly, as all of large, significant contracts receive specific company and group of people. When all tied to personal relationships, the chances of implementation of the Russian dream (similar to the us) minimal, says the analyst.
