One of the largest gas storage facilities in the EU suspended operation due to an accident, and experts assessed the consequences of the introduction of the digital ruble for banks and retailers – these and other important news for Wednesday morning, February 1, in our daily review.

In one of the largest underground gas storage facilities in the EU, located in the German city of Rehden, there was a flare fire, its operation was temporarily suspended for safety reasons. This is stated in a statement on the website of the operator of the gas storage Astora. “On Tuesday, January 31, 2023, for reasons as yet unknown, there was a flare deflagration at the natural gas storage facility in Reden for unknown reasons. No people were injured and no environmental impact has been determined,” the statement said.

The introduction of the digital ruble in Russia threatens to turn into losses for banks and, on the contrary, an increase in the income of retail chains by several tens of billions of rubles a year. Such a forecast was made by analysts of the company “Yakov and Partners” (former division of McKinsey in Russia), writes Forbes. According to experts, the digital ruble, which is being developed by the Bank of Russia, may occupy a niche in the market of domestic retail payments, partially taking away a share from bank card payments. On the horizon of 3-5 years after successful piloting and full-scale implementation of the digital ruble, banks may lose up to 50 billion rubles a year in the form of fees for servicing payments (acquiring) and the cost of attracting liabilities, according to a preliminary expert assessment by Yakov and Partners.

There is a shortage of labor in Russia, due to which salaries are growing regardless of the results of work, and this threatens to increase inflation, according to the bulletin of the Department of Research and Forecasting of the Bank of Russia “What Trends Say” for January 2023 (the opinion of experts of the department may not coincide with the official position of the Central Bank).

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) announced plans to lay off 2,000 people, or about 7% of its employees. President and CEO Dan Schulman said that these cuts will take place in the coming weeks, with some divisions affected more than others. Shulman said PayPal is working to address the challenges in a “challenging macroeconomic environment.”

Gazprom (MCX:GAZP) increased gas transit through Ukraine by 4.9 million cubic meters, RBC reported, citing the company’s information. As of February 1, the volume of pumping through the Suja GIS amounted to 29.4m cu.m. compared to 24.5m cu.m. on January 31.