UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 28, 2016. Consumer goods and services grew 14% on Sverdlovsk Region’s market last year, Sverdlovskstat reports. Food items grew 16.1% more expensive; taken without alcohol items, the price increase was 17.2% (compared with 16.1% in 2014). Fish, pasta/grains, milk and dairy products, bread and pastries, and meat prices rose by 25.3%, 19.7%, 12.9%, 10.3%, and 9.7%, respectively. The price of fruit and vegetables (including potatoes) went up by an average of 26% (+33.2% for citrus and other fruits, +25.2% for vegetables, and -28.7% for potatoes). The non-food items

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 28, 2016. 500 kg of embargoed food items had to be destroyed in Sverdlovsk Region last year, deputy head of Rosselkhoznadzor’s local division Svetlana Terekhova said at a press conference today. According to Terekhova, ninety food raids were carried out in 2015 where it was impossible to determine where the food items had come from. Under the existing regulations, such foods had to be - and were - destroyed. All in all, there were 480 food smuggling attempts in 2015, including 230 in Koltsovo Airport’s customs point and 277 related to Customs Union internal

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 28, 2016. Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (a member enterprise of ChTPZ Group) designed and manufactured its first 50,000 kg of casings with special-purpose premium threaded joints ChT-HT. The new 168.3x8.9 mm pipes (Strength grade E) were made at the plant’s OCTG Finishing Center. The company press service says the new joints are especially suited for installing a casing in a horizontal or otherwise unusual well through a series of revolving/pivoting motions. The special licensed software ANSYS was used to design the joints and do the necessary strength calculations.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 28, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation started making 25-ton strong railcar axles VA 002 and VA 302 for the European 1,435-mm railways. The Czech certification body VUZ stated the products’ full compliance with the European standards, the company press service reports. The axles are suitable for both regular and high-speed trains on European railways. Ural Vagon Zavod sees Europe as a promising sales market: the company has already got a contract for 4,000 VA 002 axles. A pilot batch of 350 items will be shipped to customer in mid-February. Entering a new market

UrBC., Moscow, January 27, 2016. Russian banks’ overall balance profits reached 191.965bn RUR in 2015, which was three times less than in 2014 (589.141bn RUR), Finmarket refers to the Central Bank as stating. The profit figures actually came to 263.694bn in the eleven months of 2015, so in December, Russian banks lost 71.729bn RUR. In fact, only 553 Russian banks (71.5%) were actually making profit as of January 1, 2016. According to the Bank of Russia’s data, the number of profit-making banks rose by 29 in the month of December, while 180 banks (24.6%) incurred losses; this figure was 32

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 27, 2016. The number of job-seekers on Yekaterinburg labor market rose by 34% last year, while the number of job openings went up by 19%, HeadHunter’s research team reports. People looking for jobs in the Blue Collar segments proved the market’s most active category in the early 2016 (the number of submitted CVs went up by 85%), followed by those looking for jobs in Administration (+66%), Automobile Industry (+50%), Development & Real Estate (+48%), and Security (+47%). ‘Quite a few people make a New Year resolution of finding a new job, so candidates have

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 27, 2016. Deputy Mayor of Yekaterinburg for Urban Development, Transport, & Infrastructure Evgeniy Lipovitch called a meeting on January 25 to consider purchasing new road-clearing vehicles. The city council reports it was decided that enough money should be allocated for each of the local depots to buy one tractor with a set of attachments for summer and winter clean-ups. The auction for bidders willing to sell the vehicles to the city council will be opened this week; the new tractors will be used this year already. In the meantime, the city’s depots

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 27, 2016. 49% of Yekaterinburg residents who took part in a recent survey said the pay from their primary employers had gone down in 2015, Zarplata.ru and E1. Rabota’s research findings indicate. 61% of respondents in this category said their pay had declined by around 30%, 22% said the decrease was 30% to 50%, and every one in five (18%) said their pay had shrunk by over 50%. 37% of those surveyed said their income had remained the same, while salaries of 14% of respondents actually went up by 10% to 30% (77% of respondents in this category) or as much as 50% or

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 27, 2016. Mayor of Nizhniy Tagil Sergei Nosov met Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s trade union activists to look at last year’s achievements and this year’s plans and to answer the workers’ questions. The company press service reports the mayor pointed to reconstruction of the city’s D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak Drama Theater, the construction of Presidentsky Sports Palace, the renovation of the Tagil Lagoon Embankment, the repairs of a bridge in Frunze St, and new housing projects as the previous year’s major events. These projects kept on going despite inadequate funding.

UrBC, Moscow, January 26, 2016. Whereas Russians used to try to spend less money on clothes and food items six years ago, now they are forced to opt for less expensive vacations and entertainment, National Bureau of Financial Research (NAFI) states. People are apparently not prepared to cut their education investments or try to save money on housing bills. The number of those who can afford not to cut back on their spending has remained at 11% to 12% over the last six years. Nadezhda Khvylya-Olinter of Moscow State University and Sulakshin Center says people’s general feelings about the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 26, 2016. The overall number of new mortgages issued in Sverdlovsk Region came to 34,847 last year, which was 23.1% less than one year earlier (45,322), deputy head of Rosreyestr local division Larisa Gashkova said at a press conference. ‘Also, the number of contracts in the private building cooperatives sector declined by 11.7%, from 14,471 in 2014 down to 12,775 in 2015. This was brought about by the country’s general economic downfall,’ she said. According to Gashkova, the number of people who registered their property rights over housing within building

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 26, 2016. Prices went down by 2.6% on Sverdlovsk Region new homes market in the last quarter of 2015 compared with the third quarter; prices on the existing homes market declined by 1.5%, Sverdlovskstat reports. New medium-range and higher quality homes grew 5.4% and 1.4% less expensive, respectively, while apartments in the premium class segments grew 1.4% costlier. As for the existing homes market, lower quality and higher quality apartments grew 1.3% and 2.9% less pricey, respectively, while prices of medium-range and premium class homes rose by 0.5% and1.4%,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 26, 2016. Sverdlovsk Region’s industrial production index (IPI) declined by 3.7% in 2015 compared with the year 2014, Sverdlovskstat reports. The figure dropped by 9.1% in the fossil development sector, by 2.9% in the processing industries, and by 0.8% in the sector for production and distribution of electric power, natural gas, and water.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 26, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s design office developed a special emblem to mark its head plant’s 80th anniversary, the company press service reports. ‘The emblem was inspired by the logos the company has used in the past. It is a symbol of generational continuity and the past years’ experience that laid the foundation for the development of a hi tech, modern production,’ the press service says. The emblem represents a protruded internal screw with ‘80’ in the center, the company’s 1936 logo on the left and its current logo on the right. ‘The corporation

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 25, 2016. The city’s first well-heated bus stop was put up in Yekaterinburg recently. The stop (Kamenny Ruchei) is located in Shcherbakov St, the city council reports. Deputy Mayor for Urban Development, Transport, & Environment Evgeniy Lipovitch went to look at the bus stop and to test the heat sensors in action. The bus stop comprises a back and two side walls to protect passengers against the wind, three columns covered in protective steel sheets, a roof with in-built LED lighting, an infrared heater benches, and trash bins. The structure is heated with an

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 25, 2016. 5,834 crimes were committed within Ural Federal District’s transport facilities and infrastructure last year, the local division of Russia’s Internal Affairs Ministry’s Transport Department reports. 4,500 crimes, 25% of which were classed as grave, got investigated; the whereabouts of 3,000 people hiding from justice were found out. An impressive share of mercenary crimes (around 33%) were related to embezzlement/stealing. 1,863 counts of theft (including 500 counts of stealing private property, 348 counts of stealing cargo, and 584 counts of stealing

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 25, 2016. Sverdlovsk Region’s building materials manufacturers’ production output decreased by 10% last year, director of Sverdlovsk Building Industry Union Yuri Chumerin told UrBC. ‘Our plants are only working to 60% to 70% of their capacity, almost at the break-even point. The amount of orders to meet declined by around 10%. The thing is, most of these actually only produce things by customers’ orders, and local developers have been putting up less and less lately. Even though new apartment blocks get commissioned as usual, fewer new buildings get planned, so

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 25, 2015. The number of claims locals place with Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities rose by 14.5% last year; every one in five such claims was found to be well grounded, the authorities report. ‘Over 60,000 claims were processed last year; both the overall number of claims and that of resolved claims went up by 8%, as did the number of prosecution proceedings resulting from sustained claims. More than 30,000 people got professional legal advice through personal appointments with the public prosecution authorities officials. Also, the number of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 25, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation bought out production premises of a former railway depot in Volchansk in order to use them as an industrial railcar production department for its Volchansky Mechanical Plant. The building used to belong to Volchansky Section, where dump-cars got repaired. The company press service reports one advantage of buying the site lies in separating the plant’s production lines. Volchansky Mechanical Plant’s current premises will still be used for making grain containers, timber railcars, and tank platforms, while the former railcar

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 22, 2016. The share of dollar/euro deposits at Sverdlovsk Region’s banks dropped from 19,7% down to 18% throughout last year, Deputy Chair of Ural Banking Union Evgeniy Bolotin said at a press conference. ‘This means people are losing their trust in foreign currency and have confidence in the ruble. Also, the foreign travel market shrank, so many former travelers no longer need to buy dollars or euros for their trips,’ Bolotin said. According to Bolotin, the overall share of foreign currency deposits in Russia on the whole declined from 30.7% down to 28.9% in 2015.