ABSTRACT
Social transfers from west to east have been running at a gross DM 85 billion annually through the 1990s. These transfers are the equivalent of one-half of total income in the east, implying that local output only funds one-half of total expenditure. Such is the scale of western spending, as well as of western debt accumulation. This study therefore seeks to form a view of the level of incomes in the east relative to the west towards the end of the first decade of transformation, and to highlight shifts in relative incomes, including household poverty.
