HIGH COST OF LIVING IN SOVIET CAPITAL

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 March 1948, Page 8

HIGH COST OF LIVING IN SOVIET CAPITAL

' ' LONDON, March 11. The diplomatic correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says that evidence reaching him from Moscow confims an impression that shopping conditions for the bulk of the people in the Russian capital have not been greatly improved by the abolition 01 rationing. While there is a greater variety of goods in the shops, a number of staple. foods have become scarcer and the quantities available for each consumer are so strictly limited that housewives catering lor large families have been badly hit., The correspondent adds: “One result of the disappearance of rationing has been a spectacular growth oi the ‘free’ or legalised black market. These markets are the only places where it is possible to obtain fresh eggs, vegetables, and good joints 01 meat, and prices are much highe l than in the State shops. For instance, on the free market even a staple food such as potatoes costs two to tmee times the official price. “The most severe setback, howevei, is the high level of prices in to wages, which for all practical pu poses has made the abolition of rationing almost meaningless.” . Working by the official rate, which makes the rouble equivalent roughly to lid in British money, the correspondent quotes the following examples of present food prices in Moscow (the quotation in each case being for lib): rye bread, Is 3d; wheat bread, 2s lid; sugar, 6s 3d; butter, £1 6s 8d; beef, 12s 6d; potatoes, ad. Examples of controlled prices lor clothing are: a man’s non-worsted suit, £2O; a worsted suit, £6O; shoes, £l2 a pair; a woman’s woollen dress, £-•>; “The result of these high prices, says the correspondent, “is that almost every able-bodied person in Russia must go out to work, irrespective of domestic responsibilities. At present a good average wage lor a Moscow worker is 500 to 600 roubles a month, which is equivalent to about £5 14s to £6 17s a week.” ‘