New U.S. sanctions against Russia don’t contain an explicit reference to the country’s construction industry but may indirectly affect the behavior of investors, the market expert told Interfax news agency on Tuesday.
“Foreign policy developments primarily affect the macroeconomic situation as a whole and shape expectations of the market actors. At half year-end, we have observed a growing investor caution. The crucial factor influencing the results of the first half of 2018 in the real estate investment market was the volatility of the Russian ruble: in the first six months, the maximum decline was recorded in April when it amounted to 11%, while in August, it was about 8%”, the head of the market research department at CBRE, Anna Shepeleva, said.
The expert has specified that a document published on August 27, 2018 does not contain a direct reference to the impact of the new sanctions on the construction industry.
“If there were restrictions on construction and design services in the field of commercial real estate, we would have certainly observed a negative impact on the market, since foreign actors still remain on the market”, she noted.
We should remind you that new U.S. sanctions on Russia came into effect on Monday. These restrictions suspend some financial assistance and weapon sales to the Russian Federation and ban the export of security-sensitive products and technologies. Washington accuses the Kremlin of violating international law, claiming that Moscow was behind the poisoning of a former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the UK.
