Nov. 20 (LPAC) -- While the 75% drop in the Russian stock market from its Spring 2008 highs might have gone unnoticed by the Russian population at large, the financial crisis is now hitting more broadly and in ways none can miss. High anxiety is spreading about keeping one's money in rubles, as the Russian currency has lost 17% against the dollar since August. Last week the government relaxed the band within which ruble fluctuation is allowed, in what Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin yesterday told the State Duma was a "correction," but everybody else called it a 1% devaluation of the currency.

The drop-off in industrial activity was already reflected in declining rail freight figures, released earlier. This week, the auto manufacturer GAZ, based in Nizhny Novgorod, announced it was going onto a three-day week, due to declining demand. Steel giant Severstal announced Nov. 18 that its output has been cut by 50% since last summer, and that it will postpone most of its $8 billion investment plans for the next three years.

On Nov. 13, the Russian Ministry of Labor said that over 3,000 Russian companies have announced layoffs, totalling 99,000 workers. That level had doubled in a two-week period. Interfax reported Nov. 19 from the Federal State Statistics Service, that wage arrears zoomed up by 33.4% during October, to a total of 4.024 trillion rubles ($149 billion).