Kaliningrad Region
The Kaliningrad Region is part of the North-Western Federal District. It borders Lithuania to the north, Poland to the south, and the Baltic Sea to the west. The region is Russia's extreme western area. It is the only region in Russia that is isolated from the rest of the country by other countries. Its total area is 15,100 square kilometres. The population as of Aug. 1, 2012, was 951,500.
The administrative centre is in Kaliningrad. Its major cities include Sovetsk, Chernyakhovsk, Baltiisk, and Gusev.
The region has more than 90% of the world's amber deposits. It also boasts land and sea shelf oil resources. The volume of extracted boiled salt is sufficient for the region, while the surplus is exported. Peat is used primarily as an organic fertiliser. The region also has brown coal deposits.
One of the region's major industries is fishing for commercial purposes. Other industries include transport engineering, shipbuilding and repairs, automobile assembly, construction material production, the food industry, wood processing, and furniture trade. Compared to the same period in 2011, industrial production growth was 5.8%. Processing industries grew by 10.2%, and electricity, gas, and water production rose by 8.4%.
The Kaliningrad Region accounts for 58% of the transport vehicles and equipment produced in Russia. Over the first eight months of 2012, 165,400 automobiles were produced in the region, which accounted for 13.2% of the total Russian output.
In January-August 2012, 437 residential buildings with a total area of 279,500 square metres were built.
The consumer price index in August 2012 was 3.9% higher than in December 2011, including 3.2% growth for food commodities, 2.9% growth for non-food products, and 7.1% growth for services.
The annual monthly salary is 20,967 roubles. The official unemployment level as of Sept. 1, 2012, was 1.4% of the economically active population, which was 1.8% on July 1, 2011.
