Kyrgyzstan has the lowest real wages among the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union. The special issue of monitoring «Cross-country comparison of wages in 2011-2017,» prepared by the experts of the Social Policy Institute of the Higher School of Economics, says.
It is noted that the experts calculated the level of salaries based on the purchasing power parity — a ratio based on comparing the cost of a comparable set of goods and services in national prices and currencies, taking into account the differences in the levels of consumer prices in various economies.
As it turned out, Russia has the highest real salary at the nominal dollar rate — $ 670.9. It is followed by Kazakhstan ($ 459.1), Belarus ($ 421.9) and Armenia ($ 363.1 according to data for 2016). Kyrgyzstan takes the last place with a salary of $ 216.3.
The specialists of the Higher School of Economics also calculated the exchange rate of the dollar at the purchasing power parity in 2017. Thus, it amounted to $ 20.92 in Kyrgyzstan, in Kazakhstan — $ 119.54, Russia — $ 23.86, Armenia — $ 194.4 and Belarus — $ 0.49.
As a result, the largest salary among the EEU countries in terms of purchasing power parity turned out to be in Belarus — $ 1,648.3. For the year, the indicator grew by $ 131.3. It is followed by Russia with a salary of $ 1,640.4 (growth — by $ 79), Kazakhstan — $ 1,252 (drop by $ 5.3), Armenia — 886.6 (data for 2016).
The lowest salary in terms of purchasing power parity among the EEU countries is in Kyrgyzstan — $711.1. Compared to 2016, the indicator fell by $ 5.9.
The situation is worse only in Tajikistan, where real wage at the nominal dollar exchange rate was $ 137, and at purchasing power parity — $ 479 (annual growth by $ 65.5).
