Russia cuts poverty to all-time low of 7.2% in 2024 - Putin

ST. PETERSBURG. June 20 (Interfax) - Russia has reduced poverty to a level never seen in its history before, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

"We've accomplished a record poverty reduction over the Russian Federation's entire history. It was 7.2% last year, and the positive trends here continue," Putin said at a plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on Friday.

The number of Russians whose incomes were below the subsistence level in the first quarter of 2025 had decreased by more than 2 million people year-on-year, he said.

The poverty level in Russia was as high as 29% in 2000, Putin said. "We had 42.3 million people in this humiliating situation, to put it bluntly. At the end of 2024, this was 7.2% rather than 29%, and this was 10.5 million rather than 42.3 million people," he said.

He called for reducing this level to 7% and further to 5%.