‘The unfolding global economic crisis that broke out in the last quarter of 2008 resulted in the dropping demand for steel produce and therefore plummeting prices. Therefore Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works (NLMK) and NLMK Group’s major enterprises did less impressively in terms of output last year compared with 2007,’ says the spokesperson for Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works. The enterprise produced 1.367 million tons of cast iron in October-December 2008, which was 38.8% less than in July-September 2008; then, their steel, slab, hot-rolled iron, and cold-rolled iron output reached

Bank Severnaya Kazna’s return on equity plummeted by 40% in December 2008. According to the available data, the bank’s ROE was estimated at -1% in November 2008 and at -41% by January 1, 2009. Then, the bank’s return on assets was assessed at -3.5% on January 1, 2009 against -.1% in November 2008. All the data are available from Bank24.ru’s official website featuring a report on the performance of Sverdlovsk Region’s banks on January 1, 2009. As a matter of fact, the decrease in the bank’s profitability became obvious after Bank Severnaya Kazna had been bought by Alfa-Bank.

Bank Severnaya Kazna’s funds decreased by 1,024,876,000 RUR in December 2008 compared with the previous month: the figure came to 4,124,791,000 RUR in November 2008 but only to 3,099,915,000 RUR on January 1, 2009. These data are available from Bank24.ru’s official website featuring a report on the performance of Sverdlovsk Region’s banks on January 1, 2009.

Last December, the money volume of loans offered by Bank24.ru to its customers dropped by 1,160,252,000 RUR compared with November 2008. The figure came to 3,205,298,000 RUR in December 2008 against 4,365,550,000 RUR in November 2008. These data are available from Bank24.ru’s official website featuring a report on the performance of Sverdlovsk Region’s banks on January 1, 2009.

‘Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg serviced 2,529,395 passengers last year, with the annual net profit preliminarily estimated at 587million RUR (compared with 747 million RUR in 2007). The revenues are expected to reach 6.5 billion RUR (in comparison with 5.3 billion RUR in 2007). This increase in revenues can be explained by the greater jet fuel prices,’ Koltsovo Airport’s General Director Kirill Shubin announced in the course of a press conference in Yekaterinburg. ‘The amount of money airlines owe us nearly doubled over 2008; remarkably, the lion’s share of these debts was made before