Interfax: No drastic shift in Russia’s business climate made so far – presidential aide

(Interfax – December 16, 2013) Russian presidential aide on economic issues Andrey Belousov has said that the efforts aimed at improving Russia’s business climate have so far not led to a breakthrough, the privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported on 16 December.

“The euphoria we felt due to [Russia’s] advancement in the Doing Business ranking by almost 20 percentage points lasted for about three hours after we learnt about these results,” Belousov said at a business conference in Moscow, organized by the Vedomosti business daily.

There are other critical indicators that show there has been no drastic shift in Russia’s business climate, primarily the dynamics of the outflow of capital from Russia’s economy, Belousov sad.

“Over the past two years our capital outflow has been at approximately 55-60bn dollars annually. This year we will remain at the same level,” Belousov said, quoted later on the same day by the Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti.

There is a positive dynamic in that the form of capital outflow from Russia is becoming more legal, leaning more towards direct investment. “But the amount itself is critical for Russia”, he added.

The amount of direct foreign investments in Russia’s economy has been stabilized at 45-50bn dollars per year, Belousov said. “This year, if we do not take the influence of the TNK-BP deal into account, we will reach about 50bn dollars again,” he added.

The Russian Ministry of Economic Development recently downed its forecast regarding pure capital outflow from Russia in 2013 from 70 to 57bn dollars. The figure for 2012 dropped from 80.5 to 62.2bn dollars according to the latest Central Bank report, the RIA Novosti report said.