German investment in Russian economy grew by third in Q1 - Russian-German Chamber of Commerce
MOSCOW. July 4 (Interfax) - German companies' net direct investments in Russia totaled 1.76 billion euros in Q1, the Russian-German Chamber of Commerce said in a statement on Thursday, citing Bundesbank statistics.
"This is 0.4 billion euros more than the first quarter of last year [a 33% increase]. In 2018, German companies invested 3.2 billion euros in Russia - a 10-year record. The volume of Russian-German trade last year increased 8.4% to 61.9 billion euros," the organization said.
"Despite the weak background, German companies continue to believe in the Russian market and are even investing against the trend," Matthias Schepp, the head of the Chamber of Commerce, was quoted as saying.
This trend is confirmed by the results of a recent survey of the Chamber's roughly 900 member companies on the business climate; 39% of them said they intend to invest in Russia in the near future.
The Chamber represents the interests of German companies working in Russia and Russian companies working in Germany. As of the end of 2018, German investors were participating in the capital of 4,461 companies.