Chris Doss The Russia Journal ------------------
Capital outflow from Russia said declining ITAR-TASS
Moscow, 2 April: The outflow of capital from Russia continues to ebb. According to the latest data, it reached the lowest level since 1998 - around 5 per cent of GDP. Experts of the United Financial Group (UFG) drew this conclusion after examining the country's balance of payments for the fourth quarter of 2001, which was published by the [Central] Bank of Russia on Monday [1 April].
The decrease in the capital outflow is evidently the only good news contained in the bank's document. The inflow of hard currency to the country nearly halved in 2001 over declining prices on commodity markets. It totalled 6.4bn US dollars over the past three months of 2001.
The inflow of direct foreign investments remains insignificant: 2.5bn dollars - even somewhat less than in 2000 - were invested in Russian companies over the entire year in 2001. Incidentally, UFG specialists do not expect any substantial change in the situation over the near future.
The reason is not only the "rigorous" Russian investment climate. In their opinion, "competition from very aggressive local capital which is redundant so far" also has its say.