OREANDA-NEWS. February 02, 2015. The outlook for the Russian economy was in 2014 clearly reflected in the investments by investment funds registered in Finland. During the year, investment funds' assets in Russia decreased by nearly 77 %, i.e., by EUR 0.9 bn. Of this decrease, EUR 0.6 bn was due to investment sales and other liquidations, and EUR 0.3 bn reflected depreciation of investments. Finnish investment funds withdrew capital from Russia particularly in the first quarter (EUR 0.4 bn) and fourth quarter (EUR 0.1 bn) of the year. The direct impact of the weakening of the rouble on the value of the investment stock remained small because on average over 95 % of Finnish investment funds' investments in Russia are dollar-denominated.  

Even though Finnish investment funds' withdrawals from Russia increased in 2014 compared to the previous years, many of the funds had reduced their investments in Russia already earlier. The investment stock peaked in February 2011 when EUR 2.3 bn (3.6%) of Finnish investment funds' capital was invested in Russia.  By the end of 2014, the investment stock had contracted to EUR 288 million (0.3 %).

Excluding Russia, Finnish investment funds’ investments in all the other BRICS countries increased in 2014 by over 60 %, to EUR 1.8 bn.