In 3rd Quarter of 2007
Moscow skyscrapers along the Moskva River at night
In case you missed it due to all of the recent political news from Russia, here are several articles about the Russian economy and foreign investments in the country from December 2007:
Ignoring Global Credit Crisis, Economy Grows 7.6% in Q3
BLOOMBERG
Monday, December 10, 2007
The economy expanded an annual 7.6 percent in the third quarter, better than expected, suggesting that problems on global credit markets have not had a major impact on the country.
Gross domestic product growth followed expansion of 7.8 percent in the second quarter and 6.8 percent in the third quarter last year, the Federal Statistics Service said on its web site Friday.
The data are not seasonally adjusted.
"The effect of the global credit crunch was less significant than some feared," said Yaroslav Lissovolik, chief economist at Deutsche Bank in Moscow. Capital investment and consumption were "strong and remained the main drivers of growth."
You can read the rest of this Bloomberg news story at the Moscow Times website. Click on the extended post to read more Russian business news.
The new Lotte department store in Moscow completed in September 2007
Cleveland, Ohio Based Firm Launches Russian REIT
Cleveland, Ohio-based Developers Diversified Realty Corp. (NYSE: DDR) became the first U.S. REIT to announce a major development initiative targeting the Russian Federation and Ukraine in May. The REIT is forming a $300 million joint venture with Hamburg-based ECE Projektmanagement G.m.b.H. & Co. KG, a German real estate development and management firm. The joint venture plans to leverage the fund by up to 75 percent, giving the partnership investment potential of up to $1.2 billion.
Meanwhile, in late April, Simon Property Group CEO David Simon said the Indianapolis-based firm was close to one deal in Russia and considering another, but would not elaborate. Local real estate professionals, however, are aware that Simon is in talks with a Russian-owned firm to form a joint venture to develop a large regional shopping center in Moscow, says Peter Hensby, who works in the Moscow capital markets department for Jones Lang LaSalle.
You can read a previously published article on this topic from May 2007 www.europe-re.com.
Timothy Post, a native of Boston, Massachussets and an MBA graduate of Babson College, is a private equity and real estate developer in Krasnodar Krai. You can read the original post on Tim's blog, Inside Krasnodar. If you have more questions about doing business in Krasnodar, you can email him at email@timothypost.com .
