UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 5, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region’s inflation rate came to 0.04% in May 2015 and to 8.6% compared with December 2014, Sverdlovskstat reports. Food items (including strong drinks) grew 0.1% more expensive in the last month and 11.8% compared with the start of the year; alcohol grew 0.1% more expensive against April 2015 and 6.5% more expensive against December 2014. The price of non-food items went up by 0.3% in May 2015 and by 8.5% against the start of the year; the price of services went down by 0.3% against April 2015 and went up by 4.2% against December 2014.

UrBC, Moscow, June 5, 2015. Russia’s Central Bank annulled licenses of seven insurance companies, two of which – Companion and Moya Strakhovaya Kompaniya – have up to now been operating in Yekaterinburg, the bank’s official website states. The other companies on the list are MRSK, Natsionalnaya Protivopozharnaya Strakhovaya Kompaniya, Rost, Sotis, and Russky Alliance. The bank explains the licenses were annulled because the insurers failed to bring their operation in compliance with the existing requirements in due time. For one, they did not meet the financial stability and paying capacity

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 4, 2015. Ural Federal University was assigned the 13th position in the National Russian College Rating created by Interfax research team. Just like a year earlier, UFU was behind several Moscow-based colleges and those located in Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Tomsk, and Kazan. ‘We feel being No.13 on the list is a good result: after all, over 200 Russian colleges compete in the rating. UFU’s current task is to comply with international standards, but this takes time. Novosibirsk and Tomsk Universities are getting there a bit faster,’ head of UFU press service Dmitri

UrBC, Moscow, June 4, 2015. Only 22% of credit cards issued by banks to Russian citizens are actually used. At the same time, increasingly more credit card applications get denied, Izvestiya reports. Based on United Credit History’s data, only 6.7m credit cards out of the 31.1m issued ones do get used by the cardholders. Incidentally, the number of newly issued credit cards has been on the decrease recently. 181,800 cards were issued by banks in April 2015, which was 4.5 times less than in April 2014. The average loan limit has also shrunk from 47,000 RUR down to 40,000 RUR. RAEX expert

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 4, 2015. Daily rains delayed the start of Sverdlovsk Region crops and potato seed, Alexander Kozhevnikov, Director of Belorechensky, the area’s largest vegetable producer, informed UrBC. According to Kozhevnikov, potato seeding was to have been over by May 25, but only 50% of the job got completed by June 3. The crops were delayed by rain. The remaining half of potato seeding jobs were put off by a fortnight, crops will be sown ten days later than expected. Consequently, the harvesting will be delayed as well,’ he said. Belorechensky will have to deal with cabbage

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 4, 2015. ChTPZ Group’s Director-General Alexander Grubman congratulated the winners of the third national WorldSkills Russia championship, students on the company’s Future of White Metallurgy training program. Grubman congratulated students and their teachers on their achievement and gave them thank-you letters. It was ChTPZ shareholders Andrei Komarov and Alexander Fedorov’s decision to award the nine winners and six Training Center experts with money prizes. ‘On behalf of the company shareholders, as well as on my own behalf, I congratulate you on winning the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 4, 2015. Rosneft thanked Uralvagonzavod Executive Director Vladimir Roschupkin and the company workers for the great organization of a technical seminar and a follow-up meeting with the staff of RN Smazochnye Materialy, Uralvagonzavod’s press service reports. ‘This meeting was part of Uralvagonzavod Corporation and Rosneft’s Partnership Agreement. The latter presented its produce to technicians and sales representatives of RN Smazochnye Materialy and to workers from Uralvagonzavod departments at the former’s Personnel Training Center. RN Smazochnye Materialy experts

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 3, 2015. 33,079 Sverdlovsk Region residents registered as unemployed by June 1, 2015. The overall unemployment figure rose by 200 people, up from 32,869 people on April 30, 2015, Sverdlovsk Region Labor & Employment Department reports. At the same time, the number of vacancies went up from 29,774 on April 30 to 35,125 on June 1, with the official unemployment rate at 1.45%. As for Yekaterinburg, the number of available jobs has remained nearly the same, 16,691 (against 16,768 in late April), the number of the unemployed changed from 5,512 in late April to 5,493

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 3, 2015. Suppliers increased their building materials prices by 10% to 15% as the high season is about to begin, Oboronsnabsbyt’s press service reports. ‘No dramatic price increases are to be expected, but building and finishing materials, especially imported ones, will probably grow a bit more expensive, despite the stronger ruble and a more stable exchange rate. The price of Russian building materials is also rising in rough proportion to the foreign currency exchange rate, even though this makes no economic sense,’ says Oboronsnabsbyt Director-General and manager

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 3, 2015. 42.9% of Sverdlovsk Region-based banks were faced with losses as of April 1, 2015, the Bank of Russia’s website states. The loss-making banks’ negative return amounted to 284.7mn RUR against 66.8m RUR a month earlier, when the share of loss-making banks only stood at 14.3%. As of March 1,2015, 57.1% of local banks were making profit: this came to 1.046bn RUR against 736.3m RUR a month earlier.

UrBC, Moscow, June 3, 2015. Sixty more new-generation trams made by Polish PESA and Russian Uralvagonzavod Corporation will arrive in Moscow before the end of the year, Mosgortrans reports. ‘Moscow will get sixty more new-generation trams before the year ends. All of them will be added to the capital’s public transport network immediately upon arrival,’ the organization says. According to the carrier, there are currently about sixty such trams operating in Moscow already. Head of Moscow Transport & Road Infrastructure Development Department Maxim Liksutov announced earlier that around 120

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 3, 2015. Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant/ChTZ (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation) celebrated its 82nd anniversary on June 1, the corporation’s press service reports. ‘The company welcomed all sorts of visitors on this day, including plant workers, their children, long-service employees, and all those curious to see the plant ‘on the inside’, in places where you normally need a special pass to get into. It has been the company’s long-standing tradition for many years to invite locals to join in the celebrations. It is for a good

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 2, 2015. Ural Federal University is planning to make around 160 members of teaching stuff in two of its colleges redundant, UFU lecturer and co-chair of Interregional Academics’ Trade Union Dmitri Trynov informed UrBC. Trynov says the expected redundancies have to do with the need to convert UFU into a scientific research center. ‘We have been informed that an order to fire 91 people in Metallurgical Institute and 70 people in the Higher School of Economics & Managements has been issued. Both colleges’ directors have already asked their respective heads of chairs

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 2, 2015. UralBusinessConsulting, an information and analytics agency, signed an agreement with the U.S.-based LexisNexis. LexisNexis is a global supplier of information and analytical solutions for businesses. The company offers its customers integrated online databases on international law, economic security, risk management, marketing, public relations, and intellectual property protection. LexisNexis solutions are popular with lawyers, economic security and risk management experts, compliance and AML specialists, people in the marketing and PR sector, business

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 2, 2015. Mikheyevsky Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise has embarked on a program for artificial renewal of aquatic biological resources, Russian Copper Company Group’s PR & Social Policy Department reports. ‘The project involves the restoration of peled (Coregonus peled, a valuable species from the whitefish family). Peled is found in rivers and lakes of Ob and Irtysh basins, including the River Karataly-Ayat, whose dams are used for Mikheyevsky’s industrial needs,’ the Department says. The funding for the project is provided by the ore mining and processing

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 2, 2015. A children’s festival dedicated to International Day for Protection of Children was held in Karabash town hall on June 1. The event was coordinated by Russian Copper Company’s charity foundation, RCC Group’s PR & Social Policy Department reports. Over 150 children from Karabash kindergartens came to watch a musical performed by actors from Zhivoy Teatr, a Yekaterinburg-based fit-up musical company directed by Alexander Pantykin. The performers arrived in Karabash specifically for Children’s Day celebrations. Zhivoy Teatr presented a story of two

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 2, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s head plant in Nizhniy Tagil coordinated Young Family 2015 Contest. According to the company press service, the first prize went to the Meling family – Sergey, Olga, and their children Sofia and Demid, who can now join the city-wide round of the contest and compete for the grand-prix, an apartment. ‘For one and a half months, contestants worked hard on their final performance: a presentation called Our Family’s Fairy Tale and a talent show. The performances were assessed by a panel of judges, including head of youth policy and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 1, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation handed out keys to new homes to seventeen of its workers. According to the company press service, employees from the head plant’s mechanical assembly department and their families will be able to move into new studios and one-bedroom apartments on the first of June on rental terms. ‘The apartments were offered to turners and millers, machine operators and mechanicals, drillers, and electricians from mechanical assembly, chief electrician’s, welding, and other departments,’ the press service says. Sverdlovsk Region Legislative

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 1, 2015. 13,604 new passenger and light commercial vehicles were sold in Yekaterinburg in January through April 2015, which signified a 49% decrease against a year earlier, Auto Dealer Yekaterinburg reports. The market shrank by 48% in April, with 3,383 cars getting sold. This figure was worse than in February and March, even though the market sagged by as much as 54% in March 2015. Hyundai was the only brand on the Top10 list whose sales actually went up, while Lada proved the best-selling car in April, which meant Nissan had to yield its second place on the list.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 1, 2015. The turnover of Sverdlovsk Region-based small businesses amounted to 973.5bn RUR in 2014, which was 5.9% less than in 2013, Sverdlovskstat reports. There were 81,800 small businesses operating in the area last year against 81,700 companies a year earlier, thus giving Sverdlovsk Region the third position in the overall country rating. 45.9% of these businesses pertained to wholesale and retail trade sector, 10.6% were involved in the building industry, and 7.6% were in the transportation and communications sector. Small businesses employed 406,300 people last