The urgent measures undertaken by Russia’s state regulators on the liquidity growth of the Russian equity market participants provided the rapid recovery of the quotations that had been falling lately.

The tariffs growth on the energy resources leads to the importance to invest in the technologies directed to the electricity savings, since the inaction is very expensive. Such are the conclusions of the report “The energy efficiency in Russia: the hidden reserve” presented on September, 17 by the World Bank and the International Financial Corporation (IFC).

Russia’s Basic Element Company owned by Oleg Deripaska is holding talks with RusHydro JSC about the construction of the HPP cascade in the Sochi city. Other investors, as well as foreign ones, may take part in the project. They should share the project’s risks, since the ecologists are against the construction, and the HPP’s electric energy may be in low demand after the Olympics ends.

It is the oil prices drop, rather than the collapse of the stock market and the lending problems, that has become the most severe consequence of the financial crisis for Russia’s budgetary system – on September, 16, the price for Urals crude fell to $85,3 per barrel. Vice Premier Aleksey Kudrin reported that if the oil prices continued falling, the budget parameters would be recalculated, since it had been calculated using the price of $78 per barrel, and at the price less than $70, the budget surplus would be replaced with the deficit.

The problems of the American financial organizations resulted in the direst collapse at Russia’s stock market. The indices of RTS (Russian Trading System) and MICEX (Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange) lost 11,47% and 17,45% respectively, and equaled the levels of 2005-end. The stock exchanges were forced to stop the trades. The experts warn that the worst is ahead, since in the nearest future, the collapse of the market will lead to the serious problems with the lending of the Russian companies, and some of them can go bankrupt.

The statistics of grain gathering published by the Russian Ministry of Agriculture confirmed the summer forecasts of the Ministry on the most bumper harvest in Russia over the 15 years: after 78% of land was handled, the growth exceeded the indices of the previous year by 20 million tons, and it is the highest index of the Russian export in 2007-2008. In the opinion of the market participants and analysts, the troubles related to the harvest will accelerate the implementation of the government’s plans on the strengthening of Russia’s presence at the grain market.

The financial regulators try to ease the tension caused by the sharp shortage of facilities in Russia’s bank system. The Bank of Russia has provided the banks with RUR 326 million more within the auctions of the direct repo, and the Ministry of Finance has taken the decision to double the volume of the budgetary facilities’ inflow to the bank system. Thus, the rates of the interbank lending grew to 10-11% per annum. The initiatives undertaken by the authorities will not ease the tension, since not all organizations will have access to the budgetary facilities, and banks refuse to lend each other, the experts state

In August, the growth of industrial production grew to 4,7% as compared to 3,2% in July and the dire results of June – 0,9% of growth. The head of the Russian Ministry of Economy Elvira Nabiullina, presenting the preliminary August data within the meeting of the government, declared that “the indices rebound”. The economists surveyed consider that the industrial growth equals the indices of trend, and the latter is lower than the industrial growth’s indices of 2007.

The Russian Ministry of Finance announced the deadline of submitting the applications for the exchange of the former USSR’s debt for the Eurobonds of Russia. It goes about the latest tranche of the Soviet Union’s commercial debt of nearly $600 million. The reconciliation of the debt of the commodities’ delivery to the soviet foreign trade organizations at the end of the 80th- the beginning of the 90th of the last century is being finished as well. Russia has to pay off about $1,5 billion more of the soviet debt to the Paris Club and $40 billion of its own debts as well.

Strikeforce Mining and Resources Ltd. (SMR) (owns mining assets of Basic Element Company and belongs to the top billionaire Oleg Deripaska) can become the first Russian company that will hold IPO at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Early in October, SMR will present the oncoming IPO in Hong Kong.