OREANDA-NEWS. According to the study “What Is Real and What Is Not in the Global FDI Network?” by the experts of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Russia more actively than all other countries attracts phantom foreign investments into its economy. This is money from foreign dummy companies, a significant share of which is Russian.

The study was conducted by Danish economists Niels Johannessen and Jannick Damgaard, as well as Thomas Elkjaer from the IMF. According to their estimates, in Russia the share of foreign investments passing through companies nominally located abroad is maximum – 57.9 %. The average figure is 40 %.

By the end of 2017, Russia, according to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, had accumulated 441.1 billion US dollars of foreign direct investment (FDI). About 255 billion dollars went through companies in tax havens such as Luxembourg, the Netherlands or Ireland. At the same time, the real investors were in other countries.

About 102 billion dollars, or 23.2 % of total foreign investment in Russia, was from funds from Russian investors passed through other countries, the IMF study says. The experts suggested that investments are made in this way to optimize taxes. The so called round-tripping, well known to researchers of Russian foreign investment, the schemes for withdrawing funds abroad and their subsequent return under the guise of foreign investment, are frequently used.

However, according to a 2017 World Bank study, Russian companies are using round-tripping not only because of tax considerations, but because of institutional and regulatory factors.