A qualitative reference source for short-term and medium-term planning, the Market Forecasts for Russia series provide business people, investors and researchers interested in this country's economy and society, with the essential intelligence for creating effective development strategies, marketing endeavors and feasible business models.

Our Russia/CIS expert analysts have prepared trends and projections for the Russian Federation and its seven huge central administrative entities called "Federal Districts", which, individually, encompass many administrative regions (they are equivalent to U.S. states; a Russian Federal District resembles an entire American region such as the South, New England or the Midwest).

We think that in such a dynamic and unpredictable country as Russia, short-time prognoses are more practical than long-term ones because of their objectivity and predictability. Our forecasts are updated yearly. You'll gradually see an economic picture for the near future - National, Federal, and Regional.

NATIONAL

A general yet solid forecast for the entire country--the median national economic temperature as it were. However, the economic temperature will vary within the whole country with its 7 enormous Federal Districts and 89 existing regions.

We therefore selected Russia's best economic regions (equal to U.S. states) and made forecasts for each of them to show their role in Russia's economy.

FEDERAL

Prognosis for a given Federal District (summary indicators for all its regions); 2) prognoses for 5-7 regions playing a substantial role in the economic development of that Federal District. Although some selected regions may not compare business-wise to other Russian regions on a national level-at the regional level within a given Federal District, they can be of great business consequence and not to be summarily dismissed.

In every Economic Section of this handbook series, we show the specialties of each Federal District. Covering business sectors and industries that make up the Russian economy, we take into account the specialties for each geographic area where we have uncovered trends and made forecasts.

REGIONAL

Should your company be interested in either SHORT-term, MEDIUM-term or LONG-term market forecasts for a particular area (such as a region, city or industry), our research staff will produce for you a detailed forecast within three weeks.