Economic conditions which had favoured Russia’s development suddenly changed in mid-2008.
The Russian economy was hit, on the one hand, by a drastic slump in oil prices (which fell from nearly
US150toUS50 between July 2008 and January 2009), and on the other by the outflow of
investors (a net of US130billionofcapitalleftRussiainthefourthquarterof2008).Withinseveralmonths,thefinancialcrisisbecameaneconomiccrisisaffectingtheentireeconomy.Thefinancialreservesaccumulatedintimesofprosperity(morethanUS162 billion in the stabilisation funds and
nearly US598billioninthecurrencyandgoldreserve)alleviatedthenegativeimpactofthecrisis,althoughthisfailedtopreventthedeepdeclinesinmacroeconomicindicators.Russiaisoneofthestatesmostseverelyaffectedbythecrisis.Inthefirsthalfof2009,itsGDPfellby10.4bynearly15hasstronglyaffectedtheRussianbudget,whichreportedadeficitforthefirsttimeintenyearsin2009.Duringthefirstyearofthecrisis(August2008–September2009),Russia’sfinancialreserveswereseriouslyreducedasaresultofthegovernment’santi−crisispolicyandinterventionsfromthecentralbank:thereservefunddecreasedbynearly4576 billion, and the central
bank’s reserves shrunk by nearly US200billiontoUS409 billion. Meanwhile, however, the money
in the National Welfare Fund, which had been intended almost entirely to subsidise the Pensions Fund
between 2010 and 2015, rose almost three-fold (to US$90 billion). According to government forecasts,
the money from the reserve fund is also supposed to be spent fully in 2010.
The financial crisis has triggered a dynamic outflow of capital from the Russian market. So-called
speculative capital was the first to demonstrate the lack of confidence in the Russian market. In the
first half of 2009, the growth rate of long-term investments also decreased noticeably, although no
spectacular withdrawal of direct investments from Russia has been observed. The economic crisis has
also halted the foreign expansion of Russian private capital, while state-owned capital strengthened
its position as an investor. Russia’s raw materials companies continue to be the main category of
foreign investors; however, new technologies are gaining prominence as the second main direction of
Russian investments