The ranking, presented for the fourth time by the newspaper Finans, also shows that the Republic of Karelia is number 22 and Arkhangelsk Oblast number 28. The ranking, which places the regions according to the budget money spent per inhabitant, puts the three tiny in terms of inhabitants regions of Chukotka AO, Nenets AO and Yamal-Nenets AO in front ahead of Moscow as number four.
While authorities in Nenets AO spend nominally 287 thousands on each inhabitant, the sum is 61 thousand in Murmansk and 57 thousand in the Komi Republic.
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According to Finans, Chukotka – the region which for several years was managed by tycoon Roman Abramovich, spends 7-8 times more than the regions in the lower end of the scale. The situation is similar in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, the oil-rich region located along the Pechora Sea coast. Thanks to generous transfers from the federal government, several economically weak regions are also well ranked in the study. Among them are both Chechnya (14) and Tyva (15).
This year’s ranking reveals that a number of regions this year have a more modest budget spending. Only 24 regions intend to increase their budgets, while most of the regions will face cuts. This trend might be explained by the fact that the federal government in 2011 will cut transfers to the regions by 100 billion RUB, down from 1,26 trillion RUB in 2010, the newspaper writes.
Still, most of the Russian regions are this year experiencing a surge in incomes. In the first two months of the years, the regions are reported to have increased their revenues with an average of eight percent compared to the same period in 2010.