Slow economic growth and declining loan growth come at time when Russian President Vladimir Putin is pressing companies, including state-run banks, to increase their dividends. A report published by WisdomTree last month indicates that Russia lead year-over-year payout growth among country’s in the firm’s emerging markets dividend index. Russia is now the second-largest dividend-paying country in the index, according to WisdomTree.
Still, Putin’s plans to extract higher payouts from Russian firms, including banks, could be derailed if loan growth does not rebound and the economy enters another recession.
Market Vectors Russia ETF
ETF Trends editorial team contributed to this post.