Sanctions work? Russian business apprehensive about investing


Over 80% of Russian investors are ready to sell their assets; and only every third businessman invests money in new projects.

This is the result of a survey conducted in the spring by the EY consulting group, news website RBC reports. 60 chairpersons of big Russian companies from 14 sectors of the economy were asked about prospects for the development of the country’s business.

According to the EY survey, 84% of Russian businessmen are ready to step back from some of their assets, 51% would be happy to sell assets associated with ‘the risk of termination of operations’, and 33% are going to get rid of unprofitable assets. At the same time, only 32% of the respondents are not afraid to invest in new ventures.

The heads of the mentioned-above enterprises agree that a major threat to the Russian economy is a tense geopolitical situation. Additional factors are changes in Russian trade policy, volatile exchange rates and digital transformation. Such opinion is shared by a number of experts.

“The principal risk factors are still at the political level. External and internal factors prevent us from long-term planning and reliable assessment of investment prospects,” Kirill Valentinov, director of the IPT group international law department, said.

‘Tense geopolitical situation’ should be read as sanctions imposed on Russia by the European Union and the USA. EY conducting the survey coincided with the US introducing new restrictions towards Russian companies.

Since then, the tension between Moscow and Washington has been mounting. In early August, the Central Bank of Russia recorded an extremely high wave of capital outflow from the country. Big business leaders do deem investing in the Russian market highly risky.

belsat.eu following RBС

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