Zee Beam News

MOSCOW, August 15 (RIA Novosti) - Accrued foreign investment in the Russian economy increased 39.5% to $178.5 billion from late June 2006 to late June 2007, the country's top statistics agency said Wednesday. "In the first half of 2007, the Russian economy received $60.3 billion worth of foreign investment, or 160% more than in the first half of 2006," the State Statistics Service said. The largest part of accrued foreign investment was represented by loans (52.8%) followed by direct investment (45.2%) and portfolio investment (2.0%), the statistics service said. Russia's main investor countries in the first six months of 2007 included Great Britain, the Netherlands, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Switzerland, France, Germany, Ireland and the United States, accounting for 86.3% of the value of accrued foreign investment and 85.1% of the value of accrued direct investment, the statistics service said. At the same time, the country saw strong capital outflow in the period under review. Accrued investment from Russia stood at $25.9 billion at the end of June 2007. Russian investment abroad increased 140% year-on-year in the first six months of 2007, to $36.8 billion, the statistics service said.