The problem of income inequality and distribution of wealth in the economy of the Russian Federation

Sokolova Elena Yurievna

The consequences of the growing anti-Russian sanctions, the coronavirus pandemic escalated the problems of poverty and socio-economic inequality and increased the necessity to give a comprehensive assessment of these phenomena in order to develop areas of action to reduce them. Despite the fact that many countries of the world have adopted state programs to combat poverty and inequality, there is no significant reduction of the gap in income and wages of the population. The scale of the problem has become so significant that increasing inequality may threaten not only to increase the income gap between countries, but also to internal social tumults, even in the leading countries. In general, international sources of economic growth are becoming less stable. As a result, countries are increasingly paying attention to the internal sources of economic growth, among which the most important place is occupied by domestic consumer demand. The problem of inequality and low incomes of the population limits the potential for expanding consumer demand, which should become an important driver for the preservation and further growth of the Russian economy in the near future.

Keywords:income and property inequality of citizens, socio-economic inequality of citizens, population income, wealth, indicators of wealth concentration, the subsistence minimum, methods of inequality measuring, indicators of deprivation.