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Minister of Labor and Social Security Maksim Topilin has recently stated that civil servant wages are very low. Furthermore, regional authorities are running short of personnel.

Industrial production index stood at 100.1% in H1 2013 against H1 2012. Such a slow dynamics can be explained by stagnating industrial production in the first quarter and a growth rate increase as little as 0.3 p.p. year-on-year in the second quarter.

On July 12, a regular meeting of Bank of Russia's Board of Directors left Central Bank's interest rates unchanged, while the Bank of Russia announced the introduction of a new instrument of refinancing in the banking system - auctions on 12-month loans secured by non-market assets or guarantees.

According to the data available as of January 1, 2012, Russia's oil productive capacity was 17,8 billion tons under C1 category and 10,2 billion tons under C2 category. National gas reserves amounted to 48,8 trillion cubic meters under С1 category and 19,6 trillion cubic meters under С2 categoryThese data were presented by Minister for Natural Resources of Russia Sergei Donsky. He explained that it was the first ever official data disclosure after the declassification of information about national reserves in Russia.

The European Union repeatedly accused the Russian Federation of violations of WTO regulations.

The problems of pumping up the federal budget didn't prevent the Ministry of Finance of Russia from envisaging a 2.6-fold wage rise for civil servants in Russia.

Since 2012 the World Bank updated its classification of countries by gross national income per capita.

First data of Gaidar Institute's business surveys on the situation in the Russian production sector in May 2013 show that the situation has been deteriorating in the sector. Enterprises had to further slow down their output, lower prices, reduce the number of employees and be very careful about their investment plans in response to further drop in sales and growth in finished product surplus stock.

The President of the Russian Federation signed the Federal Law No. 134 "On the Introduction of Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation With a View to Counteracting Illegal Financial Operations" on June 28, 2013.

The Customs Union (CU) countries keep working on the protection of their domestic manufacturers: at its Panel Meeting on June 25, 2013 the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) took a decision to impose a final protective duty on exported grain harvesters and their modules until March 7, 2016.

Within the first five months of 2013, the Russian economy was characterized by weakening of the dynamics of the domestic and external demand, as well as slowdown of growth rates of investments.

From the end of May 2013, the ruble exchange rate has undergone a regular depreciation. In the period from May 28 till June 25 the ruble depreciated by 5.1% and 6.5% to the US dollar and euro, respectively. The cost of the bi-currency basket rose by 5.8% to Rb 37.5.

On June 13, at the Web-site of the President of the Russian Federation Federal Law No.133-FZ of June 7, 2013 on Amendment of the Federal Law on the Federal Budget in 2013 and the 2014-2015 Planned Period approved by the State Duma on May 24 was published.

Alexei Ulyukaev who held the office of the First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia till June 24, 2013 was appointed the Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation.

Participants in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum which is currently underway express concern that the Russian economy has exhausted its potential of growth.

Utilization of capacities in the Russian economy has recently become the issue which is discussed at the highest level.