Foreign investments down 43 percent
Direct foreign investments in Russia dropped 43 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of the year. Meanwhile, Russian companies boost investments abroad.
In the period January-March, a total of 3.2 billion USD of direct foreign investments were placed in Russia. That is 43 percent less than in the same period in 2008 and the lowest in four years. The low investments for 2009 come after a similar situation last year. Then, direct foreign investments dropped 29,9 percent in the first quarter compared with the same period in 2007, newspaper Vedomosti reports. Meanwhile, Russian companies step up investments abroad. According to figures from the Russian Statistical Service, Rosstat, Russian investments in foreign countries surged 19.7 billion USD in the period, which is up 160 percent year-on-year. Those money are however unlikely to be investments in real project. According to City Bank director Elina Rybkova, a major part of the 19.7 billion USD is simply capital export, Vedomosti reports.
