Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Mikhail Yurevitch informed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin about the current situation on the region’s labor market.

‘The unemployment is not as bad now as it used to be, but things still don’t look as good as we’d like. We had 69,000 jobless at the peak of the recession; now the figure comes to 48,000. It’s an impressive drop. The economy keeps getting better, so the unemployment rate keeps going down,’ the Governor said.

Mikhail Yurevitch’s only concern is the machine-building industry.

‘We do not have very impressive growth figures here, even though the companies are recovering and some progress can be seen. I get feedback from the heads of large local enterprises on a regular basis in order to understand the current trends. It’s crucial to know their opinions, to learn about their orders, and to be aware of how they see their future,’ Yurevitch explained.

The official also said that the region’s stable economic growth primarily had to do with the low interest rates on loans.

‘Banks have a lot of money at the moment, so the dependable borrowers are offered very good lending terms,’ he noted.

When asked by Vladimir Putin about the average interest rate on a bank loan, the Governor said it came to about 10% for reliable borrowers and to about 15% to 17% for companies whose financial state did not look very stable.

‘Still, this is better than the previous 20% to 24%, at least,’ Mikhail Yurevitch pointed out.