Foreign investments in Russia to step up for 3 years longer

The 2006 boom in investing was triggered by aggressive policy of the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) targeted at ruble appreciation, explained Evgeny Gavrilenkov, managing director at Troika Dialog. But the CBR could change its policy for ruble appreciation in the mid-term view, especially in the environment of stable prices for crude oil. So the 2009-2010 forecasts mention depreciation risks for the national currency of Russia, which will hardly fuel inflow of foreign money.

Nowadays, a sizeable portion of direct foreign investments is funneled into processing and production industries. The aliens are predicted to directly invest at least $40 billion in 2007, which is quite a lot compared with $250 billion to be invested in the fixed capital overall. The investments will primarily go to non-energy sectors of economy - they have begun to positively affect the processing industries, the expert emphasized. In the nearest years, however, the influence of foreign money on Russia’s economy will be of dying-out nature. (kommersant.com)