Russian poverty rate ticks down to 10.5 pct

MOSCOW, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- Russia's poverty rate stood at 10.5 percent at the end of the third quarter of 2022, slightly down from 11 percent in the same period last year, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.

"The decline is indeed small but it is important that in the current difficult economic situation there is such a definite positive trend. It needs to be preserved," Putin said at a government meeting.

Thanks to targeted government support, the incomes of the least well-to-do 10 percent of the Russian population are increasing, he noted.

"Our priority task is to achieve real income growth, reduce poverty and inequality in our country as a whole," Putin said.

Russia's current poverty line for an able-bodied adult is 15,172 rubles (about 248 U.S. dollars) per month.