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On 18 September 2012, the RF Ministry of Finance, in pursuance of Federal Law No 172-FZ, of 17 July 2009, ‘On Anti-Corruption Expert Review of Legal Acts and Draft Legal Acts', for the second time published on its website its draft of the federal budget for the next three years.

 

On 17 September 2012, it was announced that the Bank of Russia was to sell a stake in Sberbank. At present, Sberbank's charter capital consists of 21,586,948 thousand ordinary voting shares and 1,000m preferential shares. The Bank of Russia owns 13,006,469 thousand ordinary voting shares in Sberbank, or 57.58% of the charter capital, or 60.25% of the voting shares.

 

Europe has two alternatives in its further development - either to gradually move towards budget federalism, or to disintegrate. If the first scenario fails, the very idea of a united Europe will collapse.

Late on 13 September 2012, the US Federal Reserve announced a third-round of a quantitative easing, or QE3; thus, they will spend $ 40bn a month on bond purchases.

On 13 September 2012, the Bank of Russia announced that, from 14 September onwards, it would increase its rate of refinancing by 0.25 pp - from 8% per annum to 8.25% per annum; in addition, it increases by a similar value its interest rates on operations involving liquidity supply and absorption.

On 2-9 September 2012, Vladivostok hosted a summit meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). As a result of the meeting, the leaders of the APEC member countries adopted the Vladivostok Declaration.

In a short-term perspective, declining proceeds from hydrocarbon exports may cause a budget deficit - a problem that can be solved either by tapping government reserves or by increasing government debt.

On 11 September 2012, Armenia's parliament ratified the agreement on the establishment of a CIS free trade zone. Thus, Armenia has become the fourth CIS member state after Russia, Belarus and Ukraine to ratify that document.

On September 7, 2012, in the framework of APEC business summit, President of Russia Vladimir Putin stated he would not rule out a possibility of prospective monetary and financial alliance in the Asia Pacific Region (APR). The development of regional reserve currencies, which is already in progress, should contribute to this process.

On September 7, 2012, Igor Shuvalov, the First Vice Prime Minister of Russia said at the APEC business summit in Vladivostok, that in the forthcoming five - ten years the trade volume between Russia and Asia Pacific Region (APR) countries may exceed the turnover with the EU. Therefore, there is a need to accelerate integration and cooperation with the APR countries.

Russia's Finance Ministry has worsened its forecast of the deficit of the RF Federal budget in 2012 to 0.2-0.3% of GDP from 0.1% of GDP approved by the law.

On September 5, 2012 Analytical Group of the World Economic Forum has published global competitiveness index 2012-2013. This year index included 144 countries, against 142 countries in the last year.

On August 22, 2012, there came into force a Protocol on the Russian Federation Accession of to the Marrakesh Agreement on Establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO), and thus the RF became its 156th member.

 

Ministry of Economic Development of Russia proposes to attract domestic sponsors by introducing new provisions to the tax code, which could allow the taxpayers to deduct the cost of charity (for the funds transferred for charity, religious and socially-oriented non-profit organizations) fr om income tax liabilities up to 10% of their profit before tax1.

 

The Russian banking sector is already experiencing liquidity problems, which since September 2011 is in the negative zone. In fact, there are two reasons for that. First, currently Russia is experiencing an upsurge in consumer lending. Thus, when compared with last year, the consumer crediting increased by 44% (as of July 1). Banks offer loans at very low interest rates. One shouldn't be even surprised, if the loan rates would match the deposit interest rates. However, it could entail negative consequences, such as the bad debts growth.

 

In July, the Russian stock market showed a positive dynamics. Over the period from June 26 to July 20, 2012, the MICEX index has grown by 6.4% (by 5.9% from May 24, 2012 to June 25, 2012), while the volume of trading in securities included in the MICEX index reached Rb 59bn.