UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 9, 2015. 16,098 mortgages were issued to customers by Sverdlovsk Region-based banks between January and September 2015, Deputy Chair of Ural Bankers’ Union Evgeniy Bolotin said at a press conference. ‘The number of mortgage loans dropped by 32.1% compared with a year earlier, their overall amount decreased by 36.7%. The figure came to 25.8bn RUR altogether,’ Bolotin said. According to Bolotin, the average mortgage amount also shrank considerably this year.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 9, 2015. Office rent grew 8% to 32% cheaper in Yekaterinburg this year, depending on the market segment, Ural Real Estate Chamber reports. The average monthly rent dropped by 18% compared with Q4’14 for Class A office space and so currently amounts to 1000 RUR to 1,400 RUR per m2; that for Class B+ office spacedropped by 21%, down to 920 RUR per m2, that for Class B office space dropped by 8%, down to 820 RUR per m2, and that of Class C office space dropped by 32%, down to 540 RUR per m2. The chamber’s analysts report the number of vacant Class A offices went

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 9, 2015. The average per-square-meter price of a new home comes to 62,800 RUR in Yekaterinburg at the moment, which is 2% less than a year earlier (64,100 RUR). Also, the average price of an apartment also decreased by 13% and currently comes to 3,233,000 RUR, a report by N1.RU and E1.Nedvizhimost states. Prices went down because homes in new apartment buildings tend to be smaller: their area shrank from 60 m2 to 51 m2 on average in the last year. These are the two-bedroom apartments whose size changed the most, N1.RU reports: these grew, on average, 13% smaller

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 9, 2015. A group of delegates from the oil-producing company Rosneft paid a visit to Seversky Pipe Plant (a member enterprise of Pipe Metallurgical Company/TMK), TMK press service reports. The delegates’ main goal was to look at the outcomes of a recent large-scale reconstruction, including a new electric steel-smelting facility and a FQM pipe-rolling facility. The delegation comprised head plant and daughter companies’ representatives and experts from Rosneft’s scientific research and design institutes. Rosneft is TMK’s key customer and buys around half a

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 9, 2015. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant in Nizhniy Tagil hosted its 36th trade union conference. The event was attended by 363 delegates, representatives of the plant’s and the corporation’s management, Chair of the All-Russian Defense Industry Workers’ Trade Union Andrel Chekmenev, Chair of Sverdlovsk Region Trade Union Federation Andrei Vetluzhskikh, and Mayor of Nizhniy Tagil Sergei Nosov. ‘The company management is fully aware of the trade union movement’s importance. This is exactly why we have always been able to reach a compromise and to keep