The most equitable Bric

The conventional image of Russia is a country of a few super-rich oil barons and over a hundred million paupers. However, despite having more billionaires than any other country, Russia has seen inequality fall during the last decade of strong economic growth: not only is the gap between Russia's rich and poor the smallest of all the four "Bric" countries, incomes are more evenly distributed than in the US.

The conventional image of Russia is a country of a few super-rich oil barons and over a hundred million paupers. However, despite having more billionaires than any other country, Russia has seen inequality fall during the last decade of strong economic growth: not only is the gap between Russia's rich and poor the smallest of all the four "Bric" countries, incomes are more evenly distributed than in the US.

One widely quoted measure of income inequality is the gini coefficient, which measures the slightly broader concept of wealth that includes things like home ownership. If communism had worked, then everyone would make the same money, which results in a gini coefficient of zero. In a perfectly unequal society where one person has all the money, the gini coefficient is 100. In the real world, currently Sweden is the most equitable nation on earth with a gini coefficient of 23 and Namibia is the least with a coefficient of 70.

Read more on http://businessneweurope.eu