Page 7 - bne_newspaper_August_24_2018

The Regions This Week
August 24, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 7
Eastern Europe
Russian billionaires and Kremlin insiders Oleg Deripaska and Viktor Vekselberg had their Cyprus bank accounts frozen by the US Treasury Department (USTD), Sigal Mandelker of USDT said. Deripaska, Vekselberg, and their businesses were singled out in the USTD April 6 round of sanctions.
Russia is in the process of leasing another 1mn ha of agricultural land in the Far East regions to China, Valery Dubrovskiy, the head of investment for the Far East Investment and Export Agency said. The Far East is Russia’s main soybean growing region.
Credit Suisse froze about CHF5bn ($5bn) of Russia-linked accounts to keep clear of US sanctions, Reuters reported on August 23.
Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister says he is prepared to cut all bus and train connections between Ukraine and Russia that would add to the suspension of plane connections between the two countries already in place. The move is in retaliation for Russian interference with sea traffic on the Sea of Azov, but will be a major inconvenience for the 3mn Ukrainians that live and work in Russia.
Russia's GDP in January-June 2018 increased by 1.6% year-on-year, according to the flash estimates of Rosstat statistics agency. This is slightly below the 1.7% estimated by the Ministry of Economic Development for the same period. In August Rosstat reported that Russia’s GDP expanded by 1.8% in the second quarter, up from 1.3% in the first quarter.
Russia’s industrial output for July was
up strongly after several months of underperforming, expanding by 3.9% y/y as compared with 2.2% y/y growth in June and average growth of 3.1% in January-July, driven by better dynamics in manufacturing and mining.
Unemployment in Russia fell to its lowest level since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, down by 2,400 to a total of 684,700 as of August 15, according to the Minister of Labour Maxim Topilin.
The Russian cigarette business is being crushed
by a combination of Russian’s growing interest in healthier lifestyles and a government public health drive that has seen taxes on cigarettes soar. Sales are expected to fall by a third next year to around $20bn pa.
Russia's second-largest bank VTB faces more difficulties in acquiring smaller private rival Vozrozhdenie, as the High Court of London for the second time since July arrested the assets of ailed banker brothers and owners of the bank Dmitri and Alexei Ananyevs.
Russia's leading retailer X5 Group opened
its first "dark store" in Moscow, the company said on August 21. Dark stores are a large retail outlet facility or distribution centre that caters exclusively for online shopping and is open only to retailer's workers.
Russian billionaire and tech investor Alisher Usmanov and his partners will invest over RUB200bn ($3bn) in state-private partnership that will develop a country-wide system of goods labelling, Vedomosti daily reported on August 22 citing internal government memos.
Ukraine's state-owned natural gas monopoly Naftogaz is set to increase the price of gas
sold to industrial consumers on a prepayment basis by UAH469.2, or 4.6% month-on-month,
to UAH10,600 ($379) for 1,000 cubic meters (including VAT) from early September. In October 2015, Ukraine cancelled state regulation for gas prices for all categories of consumers, except for the population.