European companies doing business in the Russian Federation expect an increase in the payback period of the business and predict a further decline in investment. The complex index "AEB-GfK", reflecting the sentiments and expectations of European entrepreneurs regarding business in Russia, decreased by 2014 points compared to 9 and amounted to 106 points out of 200 possible. In 2014, this indicator was 115, in 2013 - 144 points, in 2012 - 159.
55% of top managers of companies who took part in the survey claim that the turnover of their companies has grown over the past year, but in 2014 the turnover growth was noted by 69%, and in 2013 - 78% of participants.
5% of companies say they are directly affected by EU and US sanctions, and 16% partially. Moreover, 70% of all respondents report their negative impact. Russian countermeasures directly affected 2% of companies, partially - 7%. 38% of all companies felt a negative effect from them. The devaluation of the ruble (81% of respondents) had the greatest negative impact on the business of European companies in Russia.
A decrease in the positions of Russia and Russian companies in international ratings negatively affected the state of business in 47% of companies. But the improvement in Russia's performance in the Doing Business ranking turned out to be unnoticed by European companies: 82% said that the improved result of Russia does not affect their affairs.
Among the main obstacles to business development in Europe today, European companies still call regulatory restrictions and the lack of qualified personnel, although the situation is somewhat better than a year earlier. A noticeable deterioration occurred in such an indicator as supply chain reliability. 2015% of respondents (versus 26% in 18 year) indicated its shortage in the 2014 year.
In 2015, 55% of companies believe in business growth in comparison with 72% in 2014. In addition, European entrepreneurs are revising their estimates for the timing of breaking even and return on investment in Russia. Now the share of those who believe that the deadlines for reaching the break-even level will be 1-3 of the year has decreased from 56% in 2014 to 49% in 2015. The share of those who believe that breaking even will take up to 4-5 years has grown to 25% in 2015 from 15% in 2014.
73% of participants in the study rely on strong growth in the Russian economy. Despite a rather significant deterioration in a number of indicators and a decrease in expectations of Russia's economic growth in the short term (1-2 years), in the long term (6-10 years) 73% of the study participants expect a steady growth in the Russian economy.
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