Foreign investors prefer Russian trade and public catering

In the first half of 2002, foreign investments in trade and public cateringgained 48.2 percent as compared to the corresponding period of 2001, andreached $3.6bn, or 43 percent of the total volume of foreign investments innon-financial sector. This data was released by the Center forMacroeconomic Research of the UNICON/MS Consulting Group with a referenceto the State Statistics Committee of Russia.In the first six months of 2002, Germany was the leader regarding thevolume of foreign investments in trade and public catering of Russia, itsshare reaching 30.9 percent. The share of investments in these industriesin the total of German investments in the non-financial sector of Russia,was 68.3 percent.At the same time, in this period Russian industry received $3.2bn or 38.8percent of the total amount of foreign investments. Eventually, trade andpublic catering has become the leader in attracted foreign investments forthe first time in over three tears, the industry giving way to them.However, the industry is still No. 1 regarding the volume of accumulatedinvestments. As of the end of July, 2002, accumulated foreign investmentsin the industry amounted to $14.8bn, which was 38.9 percent of the totalvolume of accumulated investments in the non-financial sector. At the sametime, accumulated investments in trade and public catering were $11.9bn or31.1 percent by the end of July..