Today in Russian Business – June 16, 2010
By Citizen M | Published: June 16, 2010
The IMF has raised its 2010 GDP growth forecast for Russia to 4.25% up from 4%, while maintaining its inflation outlook of 6%. The first project approved for Skolkovo innovation city is reportedly cloud computing. Businessweek suggests that at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum President Medvedev will be busy enticing Microsoft and Nokia to bring their technology to Russia's answer to Silicon valley. Russia may add Australian and Canadian dollars to its international reserves for the first time given the instability of the US dollar and euro; meanwhile statistics suggests that an increasing number of Russians are choosing to save in dollars as opposed to rubles. Billionaire Suleiman Kerimov may apparently use his new stakes in Uralkali and Silvinit to merge both in a bid to create the world's second-largest potash producer. Oleg Deripaska's RusAl seems to have put former disputes with Guinea to one side and agreed to maintain a 'strategic partnership' with the country. The Moscow Times reports on a new study which has indicated that places which lost the most Jewish people during the Holocaust have subsequently struggled to attain the same GDP as unaffected zones.