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The 2013 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel was awarded to US researchers Lars Peter Hansen, Eugene Fama and Robert Shiller for development of methods of asset price analysis, reported the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences on Monday.

Fr om January 1, 2014, the Law on the Federal Contract System will come into effect. The above law is to replace Federal Law No. 94 on Placement of Orders for Supply of Goods, Fulfillment of Jobs and Rendering of Services for Public and Municipal Needs. On October 10, it became known that the issue of preservation of the mandatory electronic auction procedure is debated only as regards building contracts worth up to Rb 50m and Rb 150m for regions and both Moscow and St. Petersburg, respectively. Building contract for a larger amount can be placed at a tender.

The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation has prepared a draft law on limitation of the extent of cash payments: in the latest edition of the draft law it is proposed starting fr om 2014 to limit the maximum volume of cash payments to Rb 600,000, while from 2016, to Rb 300,000.

On October 7, 2013, the President of the Russian Federation submitted to the State Duma the draft law "On Amendment of the Constitution of the Russian Federation "On the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation"" (hereinafter, the draft law).

On October 8, the Central Bank of Russia reported that from October 7 it expanded from Rb 1 to Rb 3.10 the "neutral" band of the operating interval of the permissible values of the ruble cost of the bi-currency basket.

The US will reach the current upper limit of borrowings ($16.7 trillion) by October 17.

On October 2, on the site of the State Duma placement of documents and materials provided by the government simultaneously with the draft federal budget in accordance with the Budget Code was completed.

In August 2013, the volume of individuals' loan debt to banks rose by Rb 234bn or 2.4%. On the basis of the outputs of the month, the annual growth rate fell to 31.7%.

On August 1, 2013, nearly a month before opening of the autumn session of the State Duma the Government of the Russian Federation submitted for the debates in the lower house of the parliament an initiative as regards specification of the rates of the land tax1.

On September 27, The Problems of the Russian Economy: Political and Economic Outlook Conference under the auspices of the Association of Independent Centers for Economic Analysis was held in Moscow. Participants in the conference discussed key social and economic issues of the Russian economy, as well as challenges and limitations faced by the current economic policy pursued by the government.

The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation supported the other day the idea of limiting the rates on unsecured retail loans in the amount of 30% of the average market rate.

In September 2013, the World Trade Organization (WTO) downgraded its projection1 for growth in global trade volumes of goods for 2013 and 2014 as compared to its projection made in April 2013.

On September 25, 2013, the World Bank (WB) downgraded its projection for Russia's GDP growth in 2013 to 1.8% fr om 2.3% (the latest projection was made in June 2013). In 2014 the WB projects the Russian economy to grow 3.1% against previous 3.5%.

According to Rosstat's (Federal Service of State Statistics) data, the dynamics of Russia's industrial sector in the period of January thru August 2013 were balancing between stagnation and recession.

18 September Head of the Ministry of Economic Development Russian Federation Aleksei Ulyukayev stated at a "government hour" at the State Duma that "...we haven't seen such an adverse economic situation over the past five years since the beginning of the latest crisis."

The Federal Tax Service of Russia has prepared a Draft Order "On the Approval of the Form of Notification of Registration With a Tax Authority of Organizations Acting as Foreign Organizer of the XXII Olympic Winter Games and XI Paralympic Winter Games of 2014 in Sochi."