YEREVAN, August 7. /ARKA/. Mikhail Oseevskiy, VTB Bank deputy president and chairman of the bank’s board, thinks that Russia’s exports today are diversified enough and a weak ruble gives additional opportunities to exporters.
Speaking Friday at a news conference in Yerevan, he said the country’s economy heavily depends on oil prices, since Russian oil export volumes are four time larger than natural gas export volumes, but despite that Russia’s export is diversified enough.
In his words, Russia’s sales totaled $18 billion in 2014. “We remain big players at metal and coal markets, and our IT exports are growing as well,” he said.
Oseevskiy said that a tough transition to market regulation of the ruble’s exchange rate was a very reasonable step in terms of global economy and budget system.
He said that today people are cutting their expenses by shifting to cheaper foods and nonfoods. “This is quite a big challenge, but I think that in term of psychology this transformation is running easier than two previous in 1998 and 2008,” he added.
The mid-scale business segment, like many other segments, have their sales sharply fallen. For example, car dealers’ earnings shrank 50%, and trade outlets selling clothes and jewelry faced decline in sales as well.
“The weak ruble gives additional opportunities to exporters,” Oseevskiy said. “Today profitability of export-oriented enterprises is high. We see now a boom of investments in agriculture, which is high-technology and highly capitalized in the country.” –0–
