21 Aug 2009 12:11

Foreign direct investment in Russia plummets 45% to $6.1 bln in H1

MOSCOW. Aug 21 (Interfax) - Foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Russian economy plummeted 45% in the first half of 2009 compared with the same period of last year to $6.09 billion, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said.

Overall foreign investment fell 30.9% to $32.163 billion.

Rosstat said foreign portfolio investment fell 25.1% year-on-year to $862 million. This includes a 69.1% drop to $293 million for investment in equities.

Other forms of investment in Russia fell 26.5% to $25.211 billion, including $5.096 billion in trade credits, which fell 31.8%, and $19.894 billion in other credits, down 22.9%.

The manufacturing sector received the most foreign investment in H1 2009 with $9.241 billion, including $1.507 billion from Germany and $1.132 billion from Britain.

The extractive industry received $3.704 billion, including $759 million from Cyprus, $690 million from the Netherlands and $586 million from Japan.

Cumulative foreign investment in the Russian economy was $242.5 billion at the end of H1 2009, up 0.1% from a year previously. Investors from Luxembourg, China, the Netherlands, Cyprus, Germany, the UK, France and United States accounted for 77.0% of the overall cumulative investment and 75.5% of the cumulative FDI.

Cumulative investment was dominated by "other" returnable investment such as loans from international financial organizations and trade credits with 56.0% of the total in the first half of 2009 (48.7% at the end of H1 2008) and FDI - 39.2% (48.4%). Portfolio investment accounted for 4.8% (2.9%).

Russian investment abroad decreased 16.8% to $43.4 billion in H1 2009 compared with H1 2008, and $38.2 billion of previous Russian investment abroad was repaid, down 14.2%.

Cumulative investment abroad from Russia stood at $60.8 billion at the end of June. Direct investment accounted for $40.684 billion of that amount, portfolio investment - $4.669 billion and other investment - $15.442 billion.

Cumulative investment was highest in Cyprus at $17.248 billion in the period, the Netherlands at $11.971 billion, the United States at $6.965 billion, Switzerland at $4.291 billion, the Virgin Islands at $3.834 billion, the UK at $2.536 billion, Belarus at $2.327 billion and Germany at $2.27 billion.

The highest amounts of Russian investment abroad during H1 2009 were seen in Switzerland at $18.736 billion, the Netherlands at $5.557 billion, Cyprus at $4.586 billion, Belarus at $3.127 billion, the UK at $1.016 billion and the United States at $932 million.