The article reviews measures aimed at creating the EU Single Digital Market (SDM) envisaged by the relevant Strategy. The Strategy appearance stems from the rapid development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and existence of several barriers that impede expansion of cross-border trade of goods and services. The SDM creation is carried out within three pillars: better access for consumers and businesses to online goods and services across Europe, creating the right conditions for digital networks andservices to flourish and maximising the growth potential of the European Digital Economy. The final SDMgoals are building of data economy and society that offers equal opportunities to all, stimulation of cross-border trade and services, enhancement of EU economy competitiveness. Some plans envisaged by the Strategy were implemented in 2015, inter alia, the European Commission submitted its proposals on expending access of consumers to digital content while travelling abroad and on the personal data protection. The Strategy implementation is going on.

The economic situation in the Russian Federation and its regions in 2014 was formed under the influence of unfriendly geopolitical situation, worsening conditions on the world commodity markets, sanctions on Russia, imposed by the governments of a number of countries, and economic recession within the country. An assessment of potential danger of negative effects of above mentioned factors in made in this paper. The indicators of 2013 -the value of foreign trade turnover of Russia with the countries of far abroad; data on the flow of foreign directinvestment and on the amount of debt on loans, provided by credit institutions to legal entities; the amounts of payments for the import of technologies and services of a technical nature, paid during the year - serve as a source of information for such assessment. On the basis of actual values of these indicators and on the volume of the netfinancial result of activities of organizations in 2014, the author estimates the actual damage to the subjects ofthe Russian Federation caused by the compression of the world commodity markets and by anti-Russian sanctions. It is shown that under the influence of these and other factors the socio-economic development of some regions of Russian has slowed, in some regions economic situation deteriorated. The calculations showed that a power of influence of an economic downturn in Russia, a worsening situation on world commodity markets, financial-economic sanctions, imposed against the Russian Federation, on a change of the set of analyzed indicators in regions of Russia is directly proportional to an economic entity dependence on foreign capital, external financing and foreign trade turnover. The author identified the subjects of the Russian Federation that are most dependenton these factors and least dependent on these factors regions.

In the XXI century Brazil has become one of the world leaders and, thanks to the reforms of the economy and society, made the transition from an authoritarian regime to establishing democracy. It is an event of historical importance for the global economy, the South American continent, the BRICS countries, as well as a lesson and experience for the transformation of other countries with a medium level of development. The success of the previous stage has revealed new challenges in the country. After the presidential elections of 2014, the painful loss of the «domestic» World Cup and corruption scandals of 2015, the country was pulled into the recession that threatens the long-term development goals.The future of Brazil is the fate of the most important economic experiment, going on before our eyes. We need to understand the reason for this turn of events and what the prospects are. What happened? There are three options: a natural for a market economy decline in growth rates; errors of economic policy, or a case when thesesame factors are manifestations of «middle-level development trap». The authors intend to show that this is a combination of all three options.

The research infrastructure mega-science projects are the driving force of the science and technological development. BRICS countries take a part in the realization of various major international projects. Creating of suchprojects is a result of team work, of concentration of financial and intellectual resources of several countries, forexample - the projects of the Large Hadron Collider and ITER. Russia announced an initiative to create a globalsystem of research infrastructure GRAIN (Global Research Advanced Infrastructure Network) to provide all BRICS countries with access to the mega-science projects infrastructure. The realization of these programs will enablenot to duplicate the same projects on the same territory, will provide more efficient resource utilization orientedto the development of science research infrastructure. It will enable to exchange the ideas, will accelerate the development of science and technologies in BRICS countries. The efficiency of the new structure depends on theright system of management which will determinate the development of BRICS countries and the openness of GRAIN to the rest of the world. The most highly developed European network is a base, an example and general partner for BRICS countries. Today it is not necessary to claim for being the main centre. The creation of several competing centers which complete each other - is a unique opportunity of development and of a new step in the interests not only of BRICS countries but also of the whole world.

This article aims at analyzing Russia’s potential and opportunities in case of participation in global value chains. After making a theoretical analysis of global value chains functioning authors conclude that Russian state policy should be focused on establishment of the global value chains in the energy sphere. Participation in the global energy chains could also lead to the improving Russian positions in the other value chains. It is also necessary to assess the international experience in this sphere, in particular to consider the case of South Korea, which is the leader in terms of participation in global value chains system. Also it has an experience in the global value chains in the energy sphere. In the end authors concludes that the improving the positions of Russia in terms of global value energy chains could lead to the structural modernization of the economy. That is why it is necessary to use the Russian trade supporting mechanism for increasing Russian positions in Global value chains.

The article analyzes the role of global imbalances, the global financial architecture in the formation of the modern imperative trend of diversification of financial asset markets. The article subject covers the study of statistical data on the state and trends of the major groups of financial assets of international and national financial markets (NFM). The objective is to identify the main problems and development directions of the global financial market in the conditions of global imbalances. The work carries out the processing of statistical data that allowed to give the quantitative characteristics of the main types of financial assets and their role in the evolution of the global financial market. The methods used for study are those of comparative analysis, synthesis,integrated approach, system and other methods of cognition. It was concluded that due to the broad diversification of financial assets in the post-crisis period, the key objects of reform global financial architecture are its following institutions: the banking sector; financial market in the broadest sense, especially its equity sector and derivatives sector; non-bank financial institutions; credit ratings and rating agencies

The article is devoted to process of formation of alternative financial model - Islamic finance in our country. Objects of research are: a role, a position of Islamic finance in Russia and the problems interfering their development. The purpose of this research is to prove a demand of the Islamic financial concept within the framework of the Russian economy and vital necessity to eliminate obstacles of development of Islamic finances within national financial sector. The author givesthe external and internal political and economic reasons as arguments, taking into consideration the challenges of current economic situation at global and at national level.Author presents in article the concept, contractual models, its advantages,and optimal ways of evolution of a new financial system in our country. He used following research methods: comparison,systemacity, the analysis, synthesis, and complexity of approach and other methods of scientific analytical research.

The purpose of this article to highlight the main aspects of the developed method for detection and determination of values (indicators) of financial and economic, economic, industrial, social and community activities of electric power companies, allowing acceptable reliably assess the condition of the sustainability of these enterprises on the basis of the specificity of the energy industry and the modern situation of financial, economic and the social environment.The developed method will ensure the selection of parameters or variables to indicate the threats to the stability of electric power companies, and will provide an opportunity to develop mechanisms of sustainable development of the enterprises of electric power, based on sufficiently verified data of statistical, methodological and expert information base.The paper highlights the methods used by the author to identify and verify the indicators that contribute to the identification of key indicators, which reflect the real state of the electric power industry enterprises

This article discusses the robotic industry trends as part of the new industrial revolution. The dynamics of industrial robots spread in the United States and other developed nations is traced. Current trends in roboticsindustry are identified. Perspective areas of industrial robot usage are analyzed. Discusses the dynamics of venture investment in robotics.An attempt to evaluate the economic effect of the use of industrial robots is made. The social and economic effect of industrial robotics is assessed, partially, the influence on human employment. No confirmed direct link between growth in productivity as a result of automation and the rise in unemployment.Despite the prospects of human displacement robots, there are possibilities for the emergence of additional working places as a result of robotics invasion. Industry forecast is given for 3-5 years prospective.

The article discusses prospects of Germany as an automaking location and two pillar of the globalisation strategy of German auto industry - localising production and exports. In 2015 the number of cars manufactured byGerman firms in foreign countries climbed to more than 9,45 million units - an increase of 145% compared withthe level in 2000. By contrast, domestic car output in 2015 (5,7 million) was just 6,5% higher than 2000. Apart from localising production, the second pillar of the globalisation strategy is exports. In 2015, over 77% of all the cars manufactured in Germany were exported. Out of the major sectors the automotive industry reported the highest export in 2014 (+6,5%) and in 2015 (+2%). Auto industry exports to Russia in 2014 fell in 31,5%. This was already the second sharp decline in succession (2013: - 14%). In the space of one year Russia has slipped the rankings of the most important foreign markets for the German automotive industry from the 5th place to the 10th. But the demand for cars in the Germany’s biggest import markets is increasingly being met the local facilities. The differences between the German automotive industry and the automotive industry in Germany will be continue to expand in the coming years. Expansion abroad does not have to be the detriment of Germany as an automaking location. Germany does posses impressive advantages. The slogan «Made in Germany» is one element of the success of German carmakers.

The article considers the differentiation of incomes of the population from 2000 to 2014. The research subject is the optimum level of income differentiation in Russia. Paper’s objective is to assess the level of income differentiation through statistics. The article uses Rosstat’s data on the level of life in Russia. The reconstructed Lorenz curve clearly characterizes the stratification of incomes. The methods used for study are those of description, analysis, grouping, dynamic contrast, synthesis and other methods of cognition. It is concluded that there is a deviation of the actual level of cost-effective level of income inequality. It is noted that the differentiation has a dual nature. Therefore, to reduce the negative effects the introduction of a progressive tax scale is recommended.

The search for the new growth factors of the Russian economy acquired special importance under the conditions of the today’s prolonged depression. According to international studies the high-growth companies (gazelles) act at the micro-economic level as the decisive factor of the growth of the GDP and employment. In the article is carried out the empirical estimation of the number of Russian population of gazelles and is examined thestylized life cycle of the high-growth firm. It is established that in the pre-crisis years the population of gazelles inthis country strongly exceeded the corresponding level of the developed countries. After 2008 gazelle’s population in Russia experienced a sharp reduction. Our study of the life cycle of the domestic of gazelles also confirmedtheir increased instability. The use of Birch index showed that in Russia the majority both the rapidly-growing and unsuccessfully developing firms are concentrated in one and the same branches (trade, building and other).Hypothesis is advanced, that the instability of the Russian gazelles is connected with the unfavorable business conditions in the goods producing sector of this economy.

In the conditions of economic crisis is relevant the problem of accelerated development small and medium entrepreneurship. Support for this sector of the national economy requires scientific substantiation ofthe necessary resources. The aim of the study, the results of which are given in the paper was the modeling of the dependency of output small and medium entrepreneurship from investment in fixed assets and wagesof employees using production functions. As the object of research were considered sets of small and medium enterprises in the subjects of the Russian Federation. The paper describes the methodology and results of theevaluation degree of two-factor production functions. The modeling conducted on the basis of official statisticaldata for 2014 year on the subjects of the country. Proven high quality approximation of these data using the achieved production functions. The practical importance of research consists that its results can be used tojustify the need for investments and labour resources, monitoring of the level of development small and medium enterprises in the regions of the country.