Rising oil prices, a drop in inflation, and strong GDP growth have helped Russia to emerge from a recent recession with better economic prospects than it has seen since before the global financial crisis.

• Russia’s inflation has declined dramatically, hitting a historic low of 2.7pc in October 2017, well below the government’s target of 4pc. In line with this, Russia’s government has allowed interest rates to fall back to 8.25pc.
• Crude oil prices have returned to more than $50-a-barrel and Russia’s GDP growth has also bounced firmly back into positive territory in 2017. Indeed, in the second quarter it hit 2.5pc, its fastest rate in nearly five years.
• Russia’s government remains confident that GDP growth will come in at least 2pc for the whole of 2017 before extending to 2.5pc in 2018.
• The RTS was among the top emerging market performers in 2016, delivering impressive dollar returns of 50pc. It has continued to rise in 2017. But with markets failing to account for these economic improvements in their valuation of the country’s markets, shares remain highly discounted.
• The economist, Robert Shiller recently claimed that Russia has one of the lowest price-to-earnings ratios in the world, at around half that of its emerging market peers.

The nation is throwing more weight behind structural reform. A particularly interesting development came in April, when its government demanded that state-owned companies pay out half of their profit in dividends this year. Although the move was chiefly driven by a need to cover the federal budget, it also came as a boon to private investors in affected companies. Perhaps coincidentally, the move falls in line with a general trend of increasing Russian dividend payouts in recent years. Since 2014, dividends on a $100 dollar investment have risen from around $2.5 to $3-4, making the country one of the most lucrative hunting grounds in the world for income investors.

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