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On January 22, 2014, Premier Dmitri Medvedev put forward proposals on development of the sphere of social services, including a transfer of one-third of the state-guaranteed order for social services to the private business and commercialization of the education.

On January 23, 2014, the Central Bank of Russia set the USD/RUR exchange rate at the level of Rb 33.87 for a US dollar and that of the Euro/RUR exchange rate at the level of Rb 45.91 for a euro. The above exchange rate values make up the cost of the bi-currency basket at Rb 39.29 which is the maximum value from March 2009. From the beginning of the year, the cost of the basket grew by more than a ruble (from Rb 38.24 as of January 1, 2014) or 2.75%.

According to the data of the Federal Tax Service, in 2013 revenues fr om the profit tax, VAT and excises to the consolidated budget were explicitly lower than the planned indices (the profit tax was 20% short of the plan, while the VAT and excises were 13.5% and 8.6% short, respectively).

The Gaidar Forum is one of the best annual economic conferences in Russia in which the most prominent economists from Russia and other countries, as well as representatives of the government participate. Actually, during the past five years of its existence the Gaidar Forum has become an excellent site for debates of the expert community and the government.

The Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation has prepared the Concept of Priority Social and Economic Measures in which a conclusion is made that factors behind stagnation of the Russian economy are of an internal nature, namely: growth in enterprises' costs, low labor efficiency and a lack of developed institutes for business and competitive environment.

On January 16, the long-term configurations of the global power industry were discussed at the 5th Gaidar Forum within the frameworks of a plenary discussion: Sustained Development of the Power Industry: How to Make the Desired Thing Available?

Russia has demonstrated of late good dynamics in the Doing Business Rating of the World Bank, said Augusto Lopes-Karlos, Director of the Global Indicators and Analytics Department at the 5th Gaidar Forum on January 16.

On the first day of the Gaidar Forum, Anton Siluanov, Minister of Finance took the floor at the panel discussion. In particular, he touched upon the results of execution of the federal budget in 2013.

On January 15, during the Gaidar Forum German Gref, Head of the Savings Bank declared that the Swiss franc, Norwegian krona and Swedish krona were the most reliable currencies in the world, but Russians should keep savings in rubles.

On January 15, within the frameworks of the Gaidar Forum-2014 Russian Premier Dmitri Medvedev said that regional and local authorities should be responsible for upgrading of the investment climate in Russia.

In the next three years, Russia's economic growth rates will not exceed 2.5% a year, Alexei Ulyukaev, Minister of Economic Development said at the GaidarForum-2014.

In the next three years, Russia's economic growth rates will not exceed 2.5% a year, Alexei Ulyukaev, Minister of Economic Development said at the Gaidar Forum-2014.

Speaking at the panel discussion on the first day of the Gaidar Forum, Anton Siluanov, Finance Minister touched, in particular, on the results of execution of consolidated budgets of the Russian Federation in 2013.

On January 13, the Central Bank of Russia declared about reduction of the volume of target currency interventions from $60m a day to a zero.

Over a year ago, the Russian industry entered the stage of subsiding growth. Comparison of the dynamics of output and prices on industrial produce permits to evaluate the current efficiency of industrial growth stimulation measures.

The President of the Russian Federation instructed the Government of the Russian Federation to introduce in the period till July 15 legislative amendments as regards deoffshorization and implementation of additional measures to limit participation of offshore companies in state and municipal contracts, as well as the right of such companies to receive state support.