Figure of the day: China got ahead of Russia in per capita income, and Vietnam outdistanced Ukraine

Economist Dmitry Milin noted in his blog that an important event happened in October 2020: China came ahead of Russia in per capita income (last year we were ahead of the Chinese, but the 25% devaluation of the ruble this year threw us back a lot). Also, now the per capita income in Russia has become less than $ 10 thousand. Another move - Vietnam outdistanced Ukraine in October 2020 (Ukraine remains the poorest country in Europe).

Recall that per capita income, or per capita income, is an indicator of a country's economic well-being, which measures the average income earned by an individual in a country for a year. It is calculated (usually in US dollars) from the national income divided by the population, and is fundamentally different from the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Moreover, the calculation of per capita income does not adequately take into account the different purchasing power of the population of different countries.

Among the responses to these figures were the following:

- Screw it with China. Russia is lagging more and more behind Romania and Poland. From the latter it is already irreparable.

- Okay, China, this is a purely exchange rate artifact. But Romania has passed us by ... And this despite the fact that food in Romania is cheaper than in Russia.