UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 9, 2016. The telecommunications provider MegaFon is now offering its traveling customers the Neighboring Countries Package which will cut down on their mobile communication costs when roaming, the company press service reports. Neighboring Countries Package covers incoming and outgoing calls at 3 RUR per minute (ten times cheaper against the regular price) and text messages at 3 RUR per text. Mobile Internet access comes for 9.9RUR per Mb (the average non-roaming price). The package costs 33 RUR a day. ‘Belarus and Kazakhstan are the most popular destinations with

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 9, 2016. For the first time since February 2015, prices on Yekaterinburg existing home market stopped declining, N1.RU reports. ‘The price of a square meter came to 70,410 RUR on average in July; this is virtually the same as in June, when the price stood at 70,390 RUR. For the first time since February 2015, housing prices remained stable even if they did not rise. Prior to this, housing used to lose 0.2% to 1.3% of its value every month for one and a half years in a row. On the other hand, the market supply remained the same in July as one month earlier,’ the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 9, 2016. Sverdlovsk Region proved the country’s third largest lending market in the second quarter of 2016, outstripped only by Moscow and Saint Petersburg, United Credit Bureau’s press service reports. 210,400 loans (26.78bn RUR in toto) were issued in the constituency between April and June. Sverdlovsk Region was also the country’s fourth largest cash loan market: nearly 138,000 such loans (15.3bn RUR in toto) were issued here, with the average loan amount at 110,900 RUR. Finally, the constituency proved the country’s fourth largest credit card-issuing market: on

UrBC, Moscow, August 9, 2016. Russia’s foreign trade turnover reached $210.4bn in January-June 2016, which is 22.3% less than one year earlier, banki.ru refers to Russia’s Federal Customs Service as stating. The country’s export surplus currently stands at $50.5bn, which is $44.7bn less than one year earlier. Export figures came to $130.4bn (-28.7%), imports came to $79.9bn (-8.9%). China was Russia’s primary partner in the first half the year, with trade turnover at $28.3bn (-7.4% against one year earlier). Other major partners are Italy (-45.8%), Turkey (-41.1%), and France (+6.2%).

UrBC,Yekaterinburg, August 8, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Volchansk subsidiary launched a new NC mill, the company press service reports. The new equipment was assembled by the supplier company’s representatives. The hi tech mill is expected to improve the produce quality and expand product range considerably. This highly productive, multifunctional, numerically controlled turning machine is meant for making parts of special-purpose vehicles through turning, boring, milling, screw cutting, and drilling. The new machine differs from its counterpart already employed at the plant in

UrBC,Yekaterinburg, August 8, 2016. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) worked with Meta Model to introduce a new ATM cash control system and thus improve its performance, the bank’s press service reports. The new software computer-models cash spending processes throughout the bank’s ATM network and assesses amount of cash needed per machine given the customer traffic. This allows for a more efficient and better planned cash supply and withdrawal and cuts down on the number of cases when a customer finds there is no more cash in the machine. Additionally, thanks to the

UrBC,Yekaterinburg, August 8, 2016. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) made $486m in net profit in the first half of the year, which exceeded the figures for one year earlier ($468m) by 3.8%, Prime refers to the company as stating. The company’s EBITDA dropped by 12%, down to $847m, its revenues by 17.6%, down to $2.602bn. MMK is one of the world’s largest steel manufacturers and the leader of the Russian ferrous metallurgy market. The company runs a major full-production-cycle metallurgical facility and makes a wide range of metal goods, most of which are high value-added ones. MMK

UrBC,Yekaterinburg, August 8, 2016. The number of foreign workers arriving in Sverdlovsk Region declined by 24% in January-June 2016 compared with the first half of 2015, Head of Migration Department at the Internal Affairs Ministry’s Sverdlovsk Region division Olga Petrova said at a press conference. According to Petrova, 86% of work migrants came from the CIS member states, primarily Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. ‘The number of people arriving from elsewhere dropped by 29%, down to 9,000 people, in the last six months. 63% of these newcomers fly in from China. The number of

UrBC,Yekaterinburg, August 8, 2016. The amount of unpaid wages and salaries went up by 6.5% in Russia in the first half of 2016, Russia’s Accounts Chamber reports. The overall amount of wage arrears reached 3.8bn RUR on July 1, 2016. People’s actual disposable income dropped by 5%, while their actual monthly pay remained the same as one year earlier.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 5, 2016. Sverdlovsk Region’s consumer price index for July 2016 exceeded that for a year earlier by 7.5%, Sverdlovskstat reports. Against July 215, food items grew 8.1% more expensive, non-food items grew 9% more expensive, and the price of alcohol drinks and services rose by 6.5% and 4.9%, respectively. Against January 2016, food items, non-food items, alcohol drinks, and services grew 3.2%, 4.5%, 5%, and 4% more expensive, respectively. Inflation rate in July rose by 0.6% against June 2016.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 5, 2016. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) issued over 2,500 loans (amounting to more than 600m RUR all in all) in July; this was a record-setting figure since September 2014 for online loan-issuing. According to the bank’s press service, the average loan amount came to 238,350 RUR. UBRD’s new customers prefer to apply for A Minute’s Work, Open, and Retirement loan offers, while existing ones apply for loans offered as part of the bank’s loyalty schemes. ‘The share of loans issued on the basis of an online application came to 40% of all the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 5, 2016. Interfax Center for Economic Analysis carried its ranking Interfax 100 Russian Banks in late July listing the Russian banks with largest undistributed profits, assets, and own funds in the first half of the year. Metcombank was among the country’s top hundred banks in all three respects. The bank’s press service reports Metcombank was also the most successful Urals-based bank among the five Ural banks that made it to the ranking. For one, the bank rose from the 96th position as of December 31, 2015 to the 90th positions as of June 30, 2016 since its assets

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 5, 2016. Tank Biathlon took off at Alabino Range in Moscow Region; Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation is acting as the event’s partner this year. According to the corporation’s press service, the company supplied seventy T 72B3 and forty BMP 2 combat vehicles for these games; the plant is also in charge of technical assistance: more than thirty experts from the corporation’s eleven member enterprises are responsible for vehicle maintenance and crew training. Eighteen teams from Russia and other countries such as, for example, Kuwait, Serbia, and Zimbabwe are going to

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 5, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ) restored a number of social benefit schemes that had to be cut down on earlier because of the dropping domestic demand for road vehicles, the corporation’s press service reports. ‘The management and the trade union have already decided to provide employees with monthly subsidies to cover their children’s kindergarten fees. Every parent employed at the plant will be given 235 RUR a month, every single parent 470 RUR a month. Besides, parents of children under sixteen will get their children’s

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 4, 2016. Past-due mortgage payments reached 4.633,5bn RUR in Sverdlovsk Region in June 2016, which was 53% more than one year earlier, United Credit Bureau informs UrBC. According to the Bureau, past-due mortgage payments used to come to 1.8% of all mortgage debts one year ago; now they come to 2.5%. The number of past-due mortgages rose by 600, from 3,039 up to 3,639. The overall number of mortgages rose by 14% in the course of one year, up to 107,425, while the overall amount of repayments thus came to 185,358.8bn RUR (up 16% on June 2015).

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 4, 2016. Sverdlovsk Region Public Property Management Ministry and Yekaterinburg Council came up with outdoor advertising regulations for the city. Under these regulations, there will remain 1,665 outdoor ad locations in the city all in all, whereas the current number comes to 7,990 (only 1,500 of which are legitimately there). This means 80% of existing outdoor ads will have to be pulled down by their owners. The Ministry also reports they are currently working on regulations for placing billboards along Serovsky Tract. This highway will host over a hundred of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 4, 2016. EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) supported Street Workout Championship in Nihzniy Tagil as the event’s partner, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s press office reports. The championship contestants competed on horizontal bars, climbing frames, and parallel bars. The equipment purchase was funded by EVRAZ Holding, since the company decided to support Workout for Crowds, the project aimed at promoting a healthier lifestyle and sports workouts among the younger people and providing the necessary training and contest conditions. ‘The

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 4, 2016. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s savings certificates amounted to over 2bn RUR in total on July 1, 2016, which is Russia’s third largest amount on the savings certificates market, the bank’s press service reports. The overall savings certificate amount rose by more than 2.5 times in the first half of the year, even though the market’s average only stood at 4.1% at the time. This means the UBRD is far ahead of other banking market players. ‘The increasingly growing interest in savings certificates has to do with the ongoing downward

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 4, 2016. Miners of Raspadsky Mine made their 2,000,000th ton of coal this year in just six months. The mine’s overall coal output is thus 35% larger than one year earlier, EVRAZ Holding’s PR Department reports. 2,950,000 m3 of stone got uncovered for the first time in the company’s history, at the speed of 2.5m m3 a month. Thus the miners both reached their target coal production figures and made reserves for the future. ‘This increase in the mine’s production output stems primarily from the miners’ efforts to cut down on emergency shutdowns and work more

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 3, 2016. Oleg Lebedev was recently appointed head of the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development Marketing Department, the bank’s press service reports. Lebedev will now be in charge of devising customer interaction strategies and developing and promoting the bank’s products and services. He will also be responsible for developing and promoting the company brand, public relations, marketing research, and analytics. Additionally, increasing customer loyalty is also one of his department’s top priorities. ‘Oleg Lebedev comes to succeed Konstantin Dyatlov,, who