YEREVAN, April 8. /ARKA/. Russian investments in Armenia’s real economy totaled $86.25 million in 2013, a reduction of 29.7% over the year, ArmStat reported.

Direct Russian investments alone dropped by 33.6% to $58.6 million over the period.

It should be noted that the 2013 investments from Russia are the lowest in the last six years. According to ArmStat, Russian investments in Armenia peaked at the end of 2008, having hiked by 96% from 2007 to $880 million just before the global economic crisis.

A reduction was recorded also in the share of Russian investments in overall foreign investments in Armenia in 2007-2013 – from 70% in 2008 to 14.4% in 2013.

Source: ArmStat

Russia was the leader in investing in Armenia in 2007-2011 with a total of $393.8 million. But its investments dropped to $122.7 million in 2012, whereas France became the leader with $230.4 million in investments, a 2.3-time increase mainly due to French Orange’s coming to the Armenian market.

Yet, today Russia is still the main investing country in Armenia, with its capital more or less permanently present almost in all economic fields. According to the official information, there are about 1,300 enterprises with Russian capital, which is over one fourth of all economic entities with involvement of foreign capital.

Apart from this, Armenia has certain expectations from its membership in the Customs Union ahead. Some experts say Russian investments may reach $2-5 billion then.

Russian investments in the Armenian real sector have been reducing, so have the total foreign investments – by 20.5% from 2012 to $597.4 million in 2013. Direct foreign investments alone fell by 52.2% to $271.2 million as of the end of 2013.  –0--