YEKATERINBURG, July 8. /TASS/. Russian goods are becoming uncompetitive compared to cheap imports from China due to the excessively strong ruble, head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) Alexander Shokhin said.

"The Russian currency is overvalued, which undoubtedly hinders exporters from capturing new market niches and retaining the ones they already occupy. Moreover, paradoxically, a strong ruble makes it difficult for Russian companies that invested in import substitution to compete against increasingly cheap imports at the current exchange rate," he said at an off-site session of the Verona Eurasian Economic Forum held as part of the Innoprom forum.

In recent years, Chinese imports have posed stiff competition to Russian goods, Shokhin noted, adding that "with a strong ruble, this is an additional factor undermining the competitiveness of Russian products."