MOSCOW: Russian foreign direct investments fell for the third year running in 2010, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Friday, calling the pace of the country's economic recovery too slow.
"According to preliminary figures, foreign direct investments stood at $12-14 billion (9.9-10.3 billion euros)," news agencies quoted Kurdin as saying. "This is not enough."
Foreign direct investments in Russia fell by 41 percent to $15.9 billion in 2009, continuing a slide that began in 2008 in the midst of the global financial crisis.
Kurdin said Russia's best post-Soviet years saw foreign direct investments reach $27 billion.
The figure does not reflect the true scale of direct investments because the list has been consistently headed by Cyprus, a tax haven that is home to numerous Russian investment vehicles.
Kurdin also expressed frustration Friday with the pace of Russia's economic growth, which was reported at 4.0 percent in 2010 after a gross domestic product contraction of almost eight percent in 2009.
He predict similar growth figures for the next few years, a pace that Kudrin said will not let Russia catch up with the world's more developed nations.
"In upcoming years, we will have steady growth rates of four percent and more, although for Russia, this is not enough. This is the average rate of the world economy," Interfax quoted Kurdin as saying.
"Russia needs higher economic growth rates, six to seven percent," he told an economic forum in Siberia.
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