Wage arrears in Russia grew 3.5% or 118 million rubles in October to 3.505 billion rubles, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said.

Around 16 million rubles of the October arrears were public sector wage arrears caused by delays with transferring budgeted funds, up 9 million rubles or 34.5% since the end of September, including 4 million rubles for the federal budget, up 2 million rubles or 33.5%, 11 million rubles for regional budgets, down 5 million rubles or 33.2% and 1.3 million rubles for local budgets, down 45.6% or 1.1 million rubles.

Companies and organizations themselves were responsible for 3.489 billion rubles or 99.5% of the arrears, up 127 million rubles or 3.8% since the end of September.