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06.23.09 - Associated Press by Catrina Stewart - MOSCOW. Russia's economic downturn showed no signs of slowing in May, with preliminary figures released Tuesday revealing an 11 percent annual contraction in the economy during the month. The slide in gross domestic product was worse than the 10.5 percent annual drop in April. During the first five months of the year, the economy shrank by 10.2 percent compared with last year, Deputy Economy Minister Andrei Klepach said. Russia has been the hardest hit of the major developing economies as oil prices plunged last year and demand for metals dropped off. It is widely expected that second quarter GDP figures will show the economy is in a technical recession - often defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth. Growing fears over Russia's dependency on the oil price and the specter of rising bad loans in the banking sector have spooked investors, who had helped drive Russia's growth in the oil-fueled boom years under Vladimir Putin's eight-year presidency that ended in 2008. Klepach said that a hoped-for recovery had been thwarted by plunging investment, and warned it would be a "heroic achievement" if Russia posted a GDP decline this year of about 6 to 8 percent - roughly in line with official forecasts. "The economy is close to the lowest point of its contraction," Klepach said, according to the Interfax news agency. "In several sectors close to the global situation, a revival has been seen and exports can be expected to grow, but the sectors tied to investment demand are showing a major decline."

06-11-2009 - (Reuters by Conor Humphries) - MOSCOW, Russia has dismissed its ambassador to Ukraine, former prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, the Kremlin said in a statement on Thursday. Chernomyrdin, 71, who had served as Russia's ambassador to Ukraine since 2001, watched relations between the countries deteriorate sharply when the Orange Revolution in 2004 brought pro-West President Viktor Yushchenko to power in Kiev. Once one of the most powerful men in Russian gas export monopoly, Gazprom, Chernomyrdin's final years as ambassador were marked by bitter disputes between Russia and Ukraine over gas deliveries. Russian prime minister from 1992 to 1998, Chernomyrdin was on Thursday appointed an adviser to the Russian president, the Kremlin statement said.

06-10-2009 - Russia Today - Europe’s biggest bank, HSBC, has started retail lending in Russia. Analysts say, HSBC is one of the few foreign lenders taking the chance to enter the local market. The bank launched its first retail branch in Moscow on Tuesday and plans to open 3 more, including one in St. Petersburg, within a month. The lender is targeting Russians able to deposit at least $2400. Tony Mahoney, Head of International business at HSBC, says the Russian middle class has been relatively unscathed by the crisis. “There was a survey recently that suggested that, in three years, there will be approximately 30 million people in Russia earning over $20 000 a year. Now, if that proves to be correct, that makes Russia such an attractive market. So yes, there will be a lot of foreign banks looking to come in.” The bank says it’s cheaper to enter the market at the moment – prices for everything from real-estate to advertising have plummeted. But analysts say, not many foreign lenders are using these chances to enter the local market. Central Bank data shows the market share of foreign lenders is falling, as the rate of bad loans grows according to Rustam Botashev, Senior Bank Analyst at Unicredit. "Two years ago any foreign bank would pay 4 times book just to enter the market. Now the prices are much lower and even they dont have to purchase anythin, they can start up their operations from scratch, starting lending to retailers and get market share like this. But they don’t do this obviously because, in terms of their risk management, they probably think that it doesn't make sense." However, many Russians find established foreign names more reliable than domestic private lenders. Retail deposits in subsidiaries of foreign banks have increased over the past six months.

NOVO-OGARYOVO, June 8, 2009 (RIA Novosti) - Foreign investment in Russia totaled $12 billion in the first three months of 2009, down 30% against January-March 2008, the prime minister said on Monday. "Although foreign investment fell in the first quarter amid the economic crisis, there was $12 billion in foreign investment in the first quarter," Vladimir Putin said. The largest investors in Russia during the reporting period were the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Cyprus, the United States, and France, according to the country's statistics service. He said foreign investors maintained their confidence in long-term prospects for the Russian market and that it would survive the current global financial crunch. Putin said over 60 bids from foreign investors were currently awaiting approval from the country's antimonopoly regulator. In light of potential deals, the owners of strategic mining and transport and machine-building firms are seeking to increase their companies' competitiveness and solve some of the problems caused by the financial crisis, Putin said.

June 5, 2009 (RIA Novosti) - ST. PETERSBURG, Russia's annual foreign borrowing will exceed $10 billion after next year, the finance minister said on Friday. Alexei Kudrin said the figure would be so high because "the reserve fund will no longer be there." He previously said Russia's foreign borrowing could total $7 billion in 2010 but that the country did not intend to seek loans from the International Monetary Fund. As of May 1, Russia's foreign debt was 1.28 trillion rubles ($41.5 billion), up 7.8% on the January 1 figure. Kurdin said earlier on Friday Russia's federal budget deficit could be as high as 9% of GDP in 2009. "The budget deficit could total from 7.4% to 9% of GDP in 2009," he told journalists on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. The Finance Ministry said on Monday Russia's Reserve Fund, set up to cushion the federal budget against a fall in oil prices, dropped 11.9% to 3.127 trillion rubles ($100 billion) in May. It earlier said a total of 1.6 trillion rubles will be spent from the Reserve Fund to cover the deficit in the first half of 2009 alone. Budget spending increased in the first quarter as the government allocated additional funds for anti-crisis measures, in particular to support the pension system, provincial administrations and key sectors of the economy, such as the defense and auto industry.

06-01-2009 - Russia Today - The international monetary fund has issued a new forecast for the Russian economy for this year. It's predicting a sharp contraction, but there's some good news amongst the grim statistics. The Russian economy will shrink 6.5% in 2009 according to an International Monetary Fund report presented on Monday. That's in sharp contrast to growth of over 5% last year, and despite stimulus measures equal to almost 10% of GDP, according to Paul Thomsen, Head of the IMF's mission in Russia. “Russia has some strong advantages compared to other emerging markets. The policy of taxing and saving oil revenues means that Russia has the fiscal room and reserves to have a monetary exchange policy that can counter negative shocks from abroad.” IMF experts say the key to any revival is the banking sector. The Russian government claims a level of bad debt of around 10% is not bad. The main problem for Russia lies not in bank balance sheets, but according to Clemens Grafe, Economist at UBS in the outflow of capital from Russia. “The big story there is really returning capital to Russia. The way we think about the crisis, it’s not the oil price or the oil revenue that is missing in the economy, it’s the private sector capital that left when the oil prices fell.” Russia's stock markets rallied to seven month highs on Monday, as demand from China picked up and oil reached over $67/bbl. UBS is predicting a return to growth in the third quarter.