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13 September Bank of Russia publishes its draft "Guidelines of the Unified Public Monetary Policy for 2014 and the Period of 2015 and 2016". The Bank of Russia plans, like it did previously, to complete the transition to inflation targeting regime by 2015.

Bank of Russia's Board of Directors made a decision at its regular meeting held on September 13, 2013 to implement a package of measures aimed at enhancing the system of monetary policy instruments.

Additional risk ratios regarding expensive unsecured retail loans have been in effect since July 1, 2013.

In the middle of July 2013, two Russia's regions, namely Altai Territory1 and the Krasnodar Territory2, submitted at the same time similar legislative initiatives to the State Duma for consideration. The initiatives concern reforming of the currently applicable procedure for the patent system of taxation.

In January thru August 2013 the situation in the world oil market saw an uptrend in crude oil prices. Average price of Brent crude oil in January 2013 thru July 2013 amounted to $107.6 per barrel.

In the beginning of this week the State Duma website published the Accounts Chamber's report on the draft law on federal budget implementation in 2012 which had been placed on the same website on July 11.

The Ministry of Finance of the RF proposes to reduce federal budget expenses by 5% in almost all areas.

On September 1, 2013 new rates of import customs duties approved by Resolution of the Council of the Eurasian Economic Commission No.45 dated July 2, 2013 became effective within the framework of fulfillment of Russia's obligations to WTO.

In July 2013, the inflation rate in the Russian Federation accelerated: the Consumer Price Index, as seen by the month’s results, amounted to 0.8% (against 0.4% in July), thus dropping below its year-earlier level of 1.2%.

In the first half of 2013 the population's bank deposits increased by RUB1.1 trillion, which is 30% more than in the corresponding period of 2012.

The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published the Action Plan on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS)1.

Data of business surveys of the Gaidar Institute evidence that the May expectations for demand growth which had encouraged enterprises to increase output were not met and the output growth in June under the conditions of the declining demand became a problem for the Russian industry.

Following Russian Government's recent approval of a new 3-year privatization program for 2014-2016, Rosimuschestvo (Federal Agency for State Property Management of Russia) made a few statements about its intention to make this process more transparent by introducing external management for a period of sale of JSC's stocks with the establishment of asset managers for the purpose of detecting conflicts and engaging professional auditors who would be selected on a competitive basis to assess financial conditions of privatized companies.

Russia has received a notice from China, the United States, Turkey, Ukraine, and Japan of their intention to join negotiations on the car recycling tax within the WTO which were initiated by the European Union.

Recently, the Minister of Finance of Russia has allegedly agreed with the Ministry of Defense of Russia on the reduction of SAP expenditures in years to come. According to mass media with reference to the State Duma1, it would mean that a part of the federal budget expenditures would be "deferred" from 2014-2016 to 2017-2018.

The Fiscal Policy Guidelines for 2014-2016 (hereinafter - the FPG) were published in the Ministry of Finance's official website on Thursday, July 18, 2013. Macroeconomic indicators served as a basis of the draft federal budget for 2014 and planning period of 2015-2016, show accumulation of problems in the economy and, consequently, in the fiscal sector.