The Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Nikolai Vinnichenko met with Ural Federal District’s Governors to discuss the way the global financial crisis has affected the district’s socioeconomic development.

‘The banking business is now back on the track, with most banks operating as usual. Their performance indicators, however, are far from the ante-crisis status quo. As far as private customers are concerned, we can see that people no longer cash in and close their deposits, while getting a loan is becoming increasingly harder for a private individual. The ruble and foreign currency account balance tends to remain the same over the last few weeks, that is, between 10,160,000 RUR per person in Kurgan Region to 57,000 RUR per person in Khanty-Mansiyskiy Autonomous Region,’ the Representation’s experts report.

As for the interest rates on loans, they are gradually becoming more or less the same in most banks, with the highest rates dropping by 2% to 3% on average and the lowest rising a little. Nevertheless, the average interest rate on a loan keeps going up.

‘In terms of business customer service, a lot of major banks partially run by the state have been offering loans to the real sector enterprises over the last couple of weeks,’ the experts add.