‘Our chain store used to focus on premium and middle class footwear, but now we can also offer our customers some less expensive items. For instance, a pair of premium class summer shoes now costs about 7,000 to 10,000 RUR; a pair of shoes within the middle class price segment comes to 4,000 RUR, and people on a tight budget can find some shoes for as little as 2,000 RUR a pair,’ the manager of K+C chain store Elena Saidulina informed UrBC. ‘The main change the store underwent during the recession was our discount policy. Prior to the year 2009, we’d only offer discounts during our

OAO Ural Scientific Research Technological Institute reports the company suffered considerable loss in 2009. According to the institute’s official data, its net loss reached 628,000 RUR in three quarters of 2009 and 1.24 million RUR by the end of the year. This means the company’s losses rose by 613,000 RUR, or 50.6%.

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin took part in the meeting of an ad hoc recession-fighting committee under Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District. The agenda of the meeting covered issues related to the local job market, the need to pay off the wage arrears, and the future of the district’s housing construction market. Governor Misharin reported the number of the unemployed in Sverdlovsk Region had gone down by 2,544 people; however, the number of available jobs had also dropped by 827 vacancies. Nevertheless, over 1,250 new jobs

The net profit of UniCreditBank decreased by 38.5% in 2009 and came to 6.7 billion RUR, compared with 10.9 billion RUR worth of net profit in the year 2008. These data are available from the bank’s report, drawn up in accordance with the International Accounting Standards. The bank’s assets declined by 18% last year and amounted to 482.3 billion RUR, compared with 595.8 billion RUR on December 31, 2008. This drop in asset volume was mainly caused by the shrinking lending portfolio, the bank reports. Also, UniCreditBank’s capital went down to 64.2 billion RUR (against 65 billion RUR on

The Russian Federation Government declared that a number of Yekaterinburg-based stations of Sverdlovsk Region Railways (the subsidiary of Russian Railways) are to be renamed. So Sverdlovsk-Tovarniy station is to be called Yekaterinburg-Tovarniy, Sverdlovsk-Passazhirskiy is to be named Yekaterinburg- Passazhirskiy, and Sverdlovsk-Sortirovochniy is to be named Yekaterinburg- Sortirovochniy. This will be done in accordance with the Federal Act on Geographical Names, the Russian Federation Government’s press service says. Russian Railways suggested renaming the stations in Yekaterinburg in March