The View from Russia

摘要

For nine years the Russian economy and the value of its stock market have been moving steadily higher on the back of $1.4 trillion worth of oil and gas export revenues. The Kremlin's dream was that such wealth would help create a fully diversified economy with much greater wealth distribution. But, over the past year, that dream has turned into a nightmare. The question now is whether Russia is doomed to be little more than a boom-bust commodities driven economy or whether the government can shake the country out of the dream and deal with reality?rnThe previously strong pace of growth in the Russian economy fell surprisingly fast though the fourth quarter of last year and, along with it, brought an equally rapid collapse in the value of the country's foreign exchange financial reserves. For many investors, that raised the fear of an uncontrolled freefall that might end in debt default and economic destruction. They expressed that fear in a hasty exit from the country's equity and debt markets that resulted in the RTS Index ending 2008 down almost 75 percent and one of the worst performing indices in the world for the year.