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On the other day, Alexei Ulyukaev, Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation made public the position of the Ministry of Economic Development as regards the expected economic growth rates in 2014.

This is a reason for which small regional banks will face an increasing difficulty in competing with, firstly, large regional banks and, secondly, federal banks, because large banks have, among other things, easy access to low-cost financing from the central bank and to the interbank lending market.

On July 24, a number of the mass media, including the Rossiiskaya Gazeta, a state daily published the information of the official document to Resolution No.1060-r of June 16, 2014 of the Government of the Russian Federation (published on June 23) that the volume of state guarantees for enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex (MIC) would amount to about Rb 380bn (to be more precise – Rb 377.8bn).

The Rosstat published the data on the social and economic situation of Russia in January-May 2014. So, according to the preliminary outputs of the sample employment survey of households in May 2014 3.7m people or 4.9% of the gainfully occupied population was classified as the unemployed.

From February 2014, speed-up of industrial growth rates has been registered. In May 2014, the industrial production index amounted to 102.8% and 101.7% as compared to May 2013 and January-May 2013, respectively.

The Rosstat has published the data on the number of state and municipal civil servants at the regional level and their labor remuneration in Q1 2014.

Russia took the 152^nd place among 162 countries in the 2014 Global Peace Index published by the International Institute of Economy and Peace (Sydney, Australia and New York, the USA).

On June 17, the Central Bank of Russia made a decision on increasing flexibility of the exchange rate policy.

The Rosstat has recently made public a new assessment of Russian GDP growth rates in May 2014. According to that assessment, last month’s growth amounted to 0.5% and sustained stagnation was observed in the Russian economy.

On June 5, the European Central Bank reduced the key interest rate by 0.1 p.p. fr om 0.25% per annum to 0.15% per annum, as well as the overnight deposit rate from 0% to -0.1% per annum. The lending rate decreased from 0.75% per annum to 0.4% per annum.

In the period between January and April of 2014, the household real disposable income accounted for 98.8% of the value seen in the same period of 2013. The measures aimed at implementing the Russian President's Executive Order of May 7, 2012, No. 597 On Measures to Implement State Social Policy for 2012 are still resulting in a faster growth in wages in education and healthcare and social services. In Q1 2014, the level of inequality slightly improved compared to that in Q1 2013.

Possessing the world's largest reserves of fertile lands (accounting for 55% of the world's fertile lands, of which 25% are arable lands, according to the World Bank's estimates), Russia may turn into a key player in providing the global food security. Over the last 25 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the former importer has turned into a world's largest grain exporter.

In mid-May, the Ministry for Development of Regions of North Caucasus was established. Earlier, experts made forecasts that after the Olympic Games in Sochi the North Caucasian Federal District would be abolished and merged with the Southern Federal District. However, no aggregation of governing entities took place. On the contrary, in accordance with the model which has already been tested in the Far East and Crimea apart from the office of the special representative the Ministry for Development of Regions of North Caucasus was established.

The total volume of mortgage residential loans (MRLs) provided in Q1 2014 was 47.43% above the volume of such loans provided in Q1 2013. Furthermore, a total of 198082 loans worth Rb 334,73bn were provided during the quarter. The contraction of the share of overdue liability on MRLs is indicative of ongoing deterioration in the quality of mortgage loans.

At the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Alexei Ulyukaev, Minister of Economic Development said that in 2014 the maximum value of the inflation rate would be reached at the end of May and it would amount to 7.5% per annum.

Within the frameworks of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Elvira Nabiullina, Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia said that in 2014 the Russian Central Bank forecasted a capital outflow fr om Russia at the level of $85bn-$90bn. It is to be noted that only in Q1 2014 the capital outflow amounted to $63bn with internal conversion and purchasing of cash foreign currency by households and companies accounting for two thirds of that amount.