UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 19, 2015. The amount of overdue loan payments owed by Ural Federal District residents came to 82.489bn RUR on June 1, 2015, which was 46.8% more than a year earlier. In Sverdlovsk Region, the figure went up by 40.4% on a year earlier and came to 27.564m RUR, the National Enforcement Service reports. Ural Federal District-wide retail loan book reached 1.229 trillion RUR on June 1, 2015 (-0.1% on last year and -5.4% compared with the start of 2015, when the figure was 1.299 trillion RUR). The consolidated retail loan book of Sverdlovsk Region-based banks stood at

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 19, 2015. The sales of new cars went down by 50% (from 27,500 to 13,700) on Sverdlovsk Region market in January through April, AlfaStrakhovaniye's research findings indicate. 'Local market trends are a bit different from the country's average: sales decreased by a half in Sverdlovsk Region, whereas in Russia on the whole, the decline was 38% in the first quarter of the year,' says AlfaStrakhovaniye's Marketing Research & Analysis Director Alexander Lilp. Lada proved the best-selling car on the market: 1,993 Ladas were sold in the four

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 18, 2015. SKB-Bank’s MasterCard Gold was assigned the 18th position in the national debit card rating by Sravni.ru, the bank’s press service reports. The cardholder could get a yield of up to 10% a year on their funds, while the issue and administration fee only comes to 100 RUR a month. The rating experts point out that, even though getting some interest on one’s account balance at the end of the month is a great option, placing substantial sums at a savings deposit with a higher interest rate is a more profitable strategy. The rating was created with the help of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 1, 2015. Ural Airlines won Loyalty Awards Russia 2015 as Gamification of the Year/Best Game-Based Loyalty Scheme, the airline's press service reports. The annual awarding ceremony took place in Moscow. Ural Airlines Wings Club's loyalty scheme (aka Gamification) was given the highest estimates by the judges' panel. Ural Airlines launched Gamification in the summer of 2014, giving the Wings Club members a chance to accumulate premium flight bonuses by completing missions and quests such as visiting specific destinations, setting mileage records, and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 18, 2015. Bank Koltso Urala offers a new service to customers whose questionable credit history makes it difficult for them to get a bank loan, the bank's press service reports. The bank's Retail Management Director Denis Belogurov says they can lend a borrower up to 30,000 RUR within their Reset loan scheme. 'The repayment of this micro-loan will mean the borrower will improve their credit history by adding a successfully redeemed loan to it. This product is mainly targeted at people who find it difficult to persuade the banks to trust them because of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 18, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation's member enterprises presented their new produce at Army 2015, the first international military and technological forum, the corporation's press service reports. For one, Burevestnik (Nizhniy Novgorod) displayed its upgraded armored vehicle BTR 80 for the first time. Thanks to the new set of options, the vehicle's combat capacity has doubled, in addition to improved protection, ergonomic performance, and multi-actor manageability. Moreover, this upgrade set is applicable to other armored vehicle types. Burevestnik

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 18, 2015. VUZ-Bank (Life Financial Group) is going to hold a business forum for its customers on July 17-18, 2015, the bank's press service reports. 'These unique events combining educational agenda with physical activity in the open air have come to form an important part of the ways in which the bank cooperates with small and medium enterprises in the Urals,' the press service says. The summer forum will be held in Toliman Center in Verkhnyaya Sysert, Sverdlovsk Region. Te event's agenda covers practice sessions, seminars, and workshops on

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 17, 2015. The number of people staying at hotels and similar types of accommodation came to 901,300 in 2014, which was 49,900 guests, or 5.3% less than in 2013, Sverdlovskstat reports. At the same time, local hotels made 4.4% more profit in 2014 compared with 2013 (4.7bn RUR all in all or 2,138 RUR per night). On average, people stayed at hotels for 2.4 nights. As of late 2014, 344 hotels and similar types of accommodation operated in Sverdlovsk Region, including 293 hotels proper (85.2%), 32 furnished apartments (9.3%), 14 tourist halls of residence (4%), 2 boarding

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 17, 2015. Around 40% of Sverdlovsk Region gas-filling stations sell low-quality gasoline, head of Rosstandard's Ural Federal District branch Svetlana Mikheyeva said at a press conference. ''Our prosecution authorities and Rosstandard looked into the quality of gasoline for sale at local filling stations. Around 40% of stations located in Sverdlovsk Region did sell poor quality fuel. The problems were mainly related to increased sulfur content and a lower octane value than declared,' she said. Inspections helped to detect 160 instances of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 16, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region's industrial production index dropped by 3.3% in January through May 2015 against a year earlier, Sverdlovskstat reports. The index went down by 4.4% compared with May 2014 and by 1.8% compared with April 2015. In comparison with January-May 2014, the index dropped by 11.4% in the raw resources development sector and by 1.6% in the processing industries sector. The shrinkage was most noticeable in the fossil fuel industry: cargo shipments and overall amount of jobs and services plummeted by 80.4%. Also, the index declined by 49.9% in

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 17, 2015. ChTPZ Group's warehouse facility Uraltrubostal presented the Group's pipe manufacturing division's production philosophy (known as White Metallurgy) to over forty customers. According to the Group's press service, visitors to the event could take a tour of production sites at Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (one of the Group's member enterprises), including Iron Ozone 32 (a steel-smelting facility), Finishing Center for making OCTG pipes, the plant's pipe-drawing department that makes 32 to 114-mm hot-worked pipes, and ChTPZ Group

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 17, 2015. Workers from Uralvagonzavod Corporation's head plant in Nizhniy Tagil planted some flowers in the city's Dzerzhinsky District, the corporation's press service reports. 'Thanks to our employees' efforts, flower beds will bloom along Leningradsky Avenue from Dzerzhinsky Avenue to Zarya Street. The company purchased 173,700 plantlets for the purpose,'the press service says. The flowers were planted by workers from the plant's non-standardized equipment, instrument-making, and power departments, industrial safety, labor

UrBC, Moscow, June 15, 2015. Russia’s Health Ministry reports the number of deaths registered in Sverdlovsk Region is alarmingly high; Minister Veronika Skvortsova informed Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev of the problem at a recent demographic policy meeting. ‘In 37 Russian constituencies, the number of deaths exceeded those of births. Jewish Autonomous region, Kursk, Ivanovo, Lipetsk, Orel, Sverdlovsk, and Tambov Region look particularly worrying in this respect,’ the Minister said. According to Skvortsova, several cases of supermortality at specific hospitals (and relating to specific

UrBC, Moscow, June 15, 2015. In Ural Federal District, the average shopping basket grew 3.5% more expensive in May 2015 compared with April and amounted to 475 RUR, Romir reports. This is the amount of money a statistically average person living in the Urals spent at a time when shopping throughout May; the figure for Russia on the whole went up by 2.8% and came to 583 RUR. Following a slight decrease in April (the figure was smaller than in March 2015), the average basket resumed growing more expensive and became comparable with the figures for November 2014 and January 2015. Compared with

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 15, 2015. The overall volume of producer goods shipped by Yekaterinburg-based companies to their customers in January-May 2015 was 30.1% larger than a year earlier, the city council’s press service reports. The local businesses’ industrial production index reached 101.2% in the first quarter of 2015.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 15, 2015. ChTPZ Group Training Center and Pervouralsk Metallurgical School are now accepting applications to join their corporate training program called the Future of White Metallurgy, the Group’s press service reports. Young people from anywhere in Russia who have completed their nine-year secondary education program are all eligible to apply. This year, 150 fellowships will be offered by the government to cover tuition fees of those training to do metal forming, operate electrical and electromechanical equipment, assemble and operate industrial equipment, work as

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 15, 2015. The hockey teams of Uralvagonzavod Corporation and EVRAZ NTMK met in Nizhniy Tagil for a game dedicated to the 70th V-Day anniversary and Russia Day. According to the corporation’s press service, the match was a charity event, with the aim of helping children in foster care. Children from Razvedchik, Nizhniy Tagil’s only hockey school that trains children from orphanages and foster homes, were invited to attend the game. The young supporters were given gift certificates (150,000 RUR) to get new sports uniform and equipment from both teams’ respective

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 11, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region-based utility companies and suppliers owe Uralsevergaz over 4.523bn RUR for the natural gas supplied in 2015, Sverdlovsk Region Government’s website states. The debt stems from the end users’ unpaid electricity and heating bills and the fact that the engineering infrastructure is greatly worn out. As of April 1, 2015, Uralsevergas was provided with 226.7m RUR worth of city council-backed guarantees; the two parties keep working out the debt repayment schedule. At the same time, only 85m RUR have been directed to city councils from

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 11, 2015. 5,493 people without jobs registered with Yekaterinburg Employment Center by June 1, 2015. The official unemployment rate thus remained the same as in the previous month and came to 0.76%, Sverdlovsk Region Labor & Employment Department’s press service reports. 10,632 people applied to the department looking for a new job since the start of 2015; 5,573 out of them (33.6%) were actually employed at the time of application. Sverdlovsk Region-based businesses placed ads for 16,691 openings, including 9,187 vacancies (55%) for foreign workers. 9,242

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 11, 2015. The Russian Government allocated 21,342,245,300 RUR to crop farming improvements. The document to this extent is available at the official website. Sverdlovsk Region’s share will amount to 241,270,800 RUR. Remarkably, the neighboring Chelyabinsk Region will get at least twice as much, namely, 434,302,000 RUR. Kurgan Region, with its 189,465,000 RUR worth of subsidies, got the third biggest amount among Ural Federal District’s constituencies. Tyumen Region will get 165,206,000 RUR, while Khanty-Mansiysky and Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous Regions were allocated