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The composite indicator of a business survey of managers of Russian enterprises shows that early in 2013 the Russian industry deteriorated the most over the last three years.

On April 15 the Bank of Russia began to conduct over-the-counter repo operations which were announced last year.

On April 10, two months after the due date, the US Office of Management and Budget published the US draft budget for fiscal year 2014, in which it was proposed to reduce the US Department of Defense's expenses by $3.9bn (or 0.7%) to 526.6bn (3.1% of GDP) against the current ones.

 

On April 5 the President of Russia signed a Federal Law "On the Federal Purchasing System" (FPS). The FPS must replace the long-suffering Federal Law No. 94 (FZ-94) which has been regulating government procurement since the mid-2000s.

 

The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Russia (MEDT) cannot rule out that the Russian economy may suffer recession in the upcoming fall, as the Head of the Ministry Andrei Belousov said in Blagoveshchensk. The MEDT will suggest measures aimed at stimulating the economy.

 

In the first quarter, macroeconomic situation was characterized by simultaneous slowdown in growth rates of external and internal demand. According to a preliminary estimation, the first quarter saw an absolute reduction of export volumes.

On April 9, the State Duma approved Elvira Nabiullina as the Chairwoman of the Bank of Russia. In her speech she outlined a few milestones of a new monetary policy. The general idea of the speech is as follows: the new Head of the Central Bank of Russia will adhere to the previous balance between stimulating and inflation policy.

On April 10, the Ministry of Finance of Russia suggested to raise by 5% the mineral extraction tax on oil, according to the statement made for journalists by the Head of the Ministry Anton Siluanov.

For me, the Iron Lady will always remain a gold standard of adhesion to her ideals and unbending spirit aimed at accomplishing these ideals. She managed to pull Great Britain out of the abyss of dependency and socialistic demagoguery, into which the country was slowly but steadily sinking after the WW2.

 

According to our estimates, GDP growth rate in Russia is approaching its trend or structural (in other words, maximum possible, given the existing production factors) value of approx. 3-4% against the previous year, as is evidenced by a zero value of the output gap which shows percentage of deviation of actual GDP from structural one.

On April 4, the Bank of Russia intervened in the domestic foreign exchange market for the first time since November 2012.

On March 21, 2013, the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia presented a dart federal law "On the Amendments to Certain Legal Acts of the Russian Federation Regarding Enhancement of Mechanisms of Regulation of Researchers' Labor, as well as Financial Instruments and Mechanisms of Support to Scientific Activities in of the Russian Federation". This draft law provides for a series of amendments and supplements to the labor and tax codes, as well as to the Federal Law dd. August 23, 1996, No.127-FZ "On Science and State Scientific and Technical Policy".

On April 3, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia delayed for two months against the previous year its report on the industrial production index in 2012, which stood at 102.6% and statistics by industry, including the military-industrial sector.

On April 2, the Bank of Russia decided to leave unchanged its refinancing rate as well as most of interest rates on principal operations.

 

In January-February 2013, crude oil production reduced by 0.7% year on year. It is an evidence of that the Russian oil production industry is approaching its maximum production capacity.

Economists are even more skeptical about achieving economic growth rates and a 5% growth of GDP in years to come.