Foreign Direct Investment in 2018: Record-High Outflow

Alexander Yu. Knobel – Head of World Trade Department of the Gaidar Institute; Director of Center for International Trade Studies of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Candidate of Economic Sciences (Moscow, Russia). E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Yury K. Zaitsev – Senior Researcher of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration; Deputy Director of the Institute for World Economy and Finance, VAVT, Candidate of Economic Sciences (Moscow, Russia). E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Judging from the year-end results of 2018, the RF Central Bank pointed out the highest (relative to the entire statistical observation period) outflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) from the capital of Russian companies, amounting to $ 6.46bn. The plunge in the inflow of foreign investment in Russia is in line with the worldwide downward trend of capital investment (by 19%). The stimuli for FDI inflow into Russia are on the decline due to the presence of political risks, including those associated with economic sanctions.

Key words: direct foreign investment, capital investment, incoming investments, outgoing investments.