President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday signed a decree to increase the salaries of federal civil servants for the first time in four years.
Government salaries were last increased in 2013, just before Russia’s economy entered a lengthy financial crisis caused by a fall in oil prices, the collapse of the ruble and international sanctions over Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
Starting Jan. 1, 2018, state salaries will increase by 4 percent, which is less than the last increase of 5.5 percent in Oct. 2013, the RBC business portal reports.
Finance Minister Anton Siluanov was cited by the state-run TASS news agency as saying that real wages will increase by more than 4 percent in 2018.
According to Russia’s federal statistics agency Rosstat, the average federal civil servant salary in 2016 amounted to 115,700 rubles ($2000) per month.
By comparison, Russia’s living wage was set at 10,328 rubles ($175) per month in the third quarter of 2017, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported on Tuesday.
