DAVOS, January 24. /ITAR-TASS/. The tendency relocating investments from emerging to developed countries is not long-term, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television broadcaster during the World Economic Forum in Davos on Friday.
The reasons investors have focused on developed economies is - while formerly high risks of investments in BRICS and other emerging economies were paying back, now the paybacks are much less, “wages are growing and money becomes more expensive.” At the same time, the US, which has been attracting most investments, cost of money has declined like cost of energy resources, which is very important for most industrial projects, and thus “quite naturally, the flows headed in that direction.”
“I do not think it is a long-term tendency, maximum for the next two-three years,” Dvorkovich said. “The money in the US will become more expensive, otherwise they will face problems with inflation. I do not think the energy sources will remain that cheap for a too long time either. Thus, the flows will get balanced gradually, and then once again the trend will be towards the emerging markets.”
Dvorkovich said the Davos forum had discussed slower growth rates in BRICS countries. Some experts called it “BRICS midlife crisis.” However, in the end of the discussion, the participants came to the conclusion “there is no talking about the midlife crisis as BRICS is under that age yet.”
“During the discussion there was an idea BRICS has not died, it is only taking a nap. In fact, we can see a certain pause, caused by problems in Europe, which is BRICS’ major trade partner, as well as structural changes in the BRICS countries. Clearly, structural changes always cause certain decline in growth rates at the initial stage. However, later on speeding up is very probable,” the deputy prime minister said, adding the world still hoped for BRICS more than for Europe or the US in terms of a higher economic growth.