The outside world's debt and equity exposure to Russia exceeds $200 billion, according to the Institute of International Finance, a Washington-based research body owned by leading banks.
The figure takes in $194 billion in all external debt, and its $11 billion estimate for accumulated foreign direct investment and investment in Russian equities at the end of 1997. But exposure does not necessarily equal loss, and bankers were trying yesterday to put a figure on how much has been, or will be, "lost".
ING Barings, the Dutch-owned investment bank, estimates that about $118 billion in wealth has been "destroyed" in Russia since the beginning of 1998.
He broke down the year-to-date loss of wealth: a $31 billion fall in the value of outside debt, an estimated $30 billion loss in value on GKOs (rouble-denominated treasury bills) and a $57 billion fall in stock market value.
Russia's exposure to foreign creditors in various types of hard currency-denominated bonds is $54.5 billion, economists and bankers said. That does not include $40 billion in GKOs that are the focus of Tuesday's forced debt restructuring.
