Russia’s exports of services: in search of new growth drivers

Abstract

The article examines the scale, dynamics, growth and constraining factors of Russia’s services exports in 2000-2017. By early 2017 some of headwinds (collapse of commodity trade, depreciation
of the rouble) as well as part of its growth factors (demand from developed countries, inflow of foreign investment) visibly weakened. In these circumstances, the author proposes to discuss the feasibility of new drivers of growth in exports of domestic services: diversifying their geographical structure, better use of import capacity of developing countries, as well as the use of a rarely used in Russia mode of the services supplies for export, the so-called “commercial presence”. While analysing the second proposal, the issue of capital transfers regulation in the context of the investment slowdown was examined.