Mishustin about departed investors: “A holy place is never empty”

Foreign investors who left the Russian market freed up a niche for other players. This was stated by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin at the Moscow Financial Forum.

The Prime Minister said that despite the fact that the unilateral severance of previous economic ties with Western partners has aggravated many issues, the most difficult period is behind us. Negative forecasts that predicted the decline of the Russian economy did not come true: under enormous pressure, the gross domestic product dropped by only 2%, the country returned to sustainable growth.

Mishustin said that many foreign investors were interested in preserving Russian projects, but found themselves in a difficult situation due to the actions of their own authorities and were forced to leave Russia.

“We hope that pragmatism will prevail and they will return. But as we say, “a holy place is never empty.” Those who left our market, as a result, freed up a niche for other players, suppliers, and gave perhaps less popular brands the opportunity to express themselves. Well, more determined investors have now expanded their projects or launched new ones,” Mishustin said.

The result was high growth rates of economic activity. The head of the Cabinet cited data from the Ministry of Economic Development: by the end of the year, the growth of gross domestic product may exceed 2.5%.

On September 22, Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov predicted GDP growth in Russia in 2023 to 2.8%, in 2024 – to 2.3%. Subsequently, growth will be slightly more than 2% per year. GDP in 2024 is expected to reach 180 trillion rubles, in 2025 – more than 190 trillion rubles, in 2026 – more than 202 trillion rubles. According to Reshetnikov, this is more than was included in the script, “on average by 9 trillion rubles. annually”.