Moscow press review for June 6, 2013
MOSCOW. June 6 (Interfax) - The following is a digest of Moscow newspapers published on June 6. Interfax does not accept liability for information in these stories.
POLITICS & ECONOMICS
Departing Central Bank chief Sergei Ignatyev unexpectedly indicated Wednesday that interest rates might be cut at the bank's next board meeting on June 10. A medium-term easing of economic policy, including proposals to make the Central Bank responsible for economic growth and measures to reduce the ruble's real exchange rate, will be discussed Thursday with President Vladimir Putin (Kommersant, p. 1).
Russia's Labor Ministry is proposing to eliminate the system of early government pensions for new generations. This will become the responsibility of either employers or the social insurance fund. Early pensions made up a quarter of retirement pension payments from the Pension Fund of Russia in 2012 (Vedomosti, p. 1).
Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov has evaluated the foreign influence on nongovernmental organizations in Russia. His assessment might be close to that of prosecutors. The minister reckons there are up to 100 NGO's in Russia that could be classified as 'foreign agents' (Vedomosti, p. 1).
OIL & GAS
Gazprom and independent Russian gas producer Novatek have not managed to agree on the scale of investment and their stakes in projects on the Yamal Peninsula that they have been discussing for over a year. The deal was initially not lucrative for Novatek, analysts believe (Vedomosti, p. 12).
METALS & MINING
Billionaire Vladimir Potanin's new management team at Norilsk Nickel is rewriting the Russian mining giant's strategy. The reassessment will affect investment projects worth a total of $37.6 billion (Vedomosti, p. 10).
BANKING, FINANCE & INSURANCE
The head of Russia's Deposit Insurance Agency is proposing to expand the powers of the agency to enable it to restructure and liquidate all financial companies, not just banks. The proposal has already won the support of the chairman of the State Duma financial markets committee and in part the Central Bank (Kommersant, p. 1).
The number of individuals in Russia to take out a bank loan but not make a single payment in three months has nearly doubled since the start of the year. Credit history bureaus classify such borrowers as frauds. The share of fraudulent retail loans rose to a record 2.5% in May, forcing banks to tighten lending conditions (Kommersant, p. 9).
Russian banks have followed market leader Sberbank and lowered mortgage rates and begun to issue 30% more loans. However, if developers are unable to meet demand, residential real estate prices will climb, bankers warn (Vedomosti, p. 10).
Net inflows into open-ended mutual funds in Russia reached a record 1.17 billion rubles in May. This was due to the continued popularity of bond funds and a decrease in withdrawals from equity funds (Kommersant, p. 10).
RETAIL & CONSUMER MARKET
The start of the summer vacation season has so far been disappointing for Russian travel companies. Weak demand for European beach destinations such as Greece, Spain, Bulgaria and Cyprus has forced vendors to cut prices. Prices have so far remained firm only for the most popular destination, Turkey (Kommersant, p. 1).
Changes in import duties have criminalized Russia's watch market. About 80% of wrist watches were imported into Russia illegally in 2012, the Association of Watch Market Participants estimates (Vedomosti, p. 11).
Russia's entertainment and media market will grow by an average of 9.4% annually in the next few years to $39.8 billion in 2017 from $25.2 billion in 2012, PricewaterhouseCoopers forecasts. The growth will be led by the Internet, where advertising will more than double to $4.351 billion. Only book publishers are expected to see a decline in revenue, to $1.1 billion from $1.4 billion (Kommersant, p. 13).
TRANSPORTATION
The owners of Vnukovo Airport want to acquire a controlling stake in Kaluga's Yermolino, which could become a fourth airport for Moscow. They are prepared to invest billions in its development (Vedomosti, p. 11).