Resource nationalism and credit growth in FSU countries

This paper analyses the connection between resource nationalism and financial sector intervention in the FSU countries. We consider recent financial development in the FSU and the special features of energy rich emerging economies (Russia and Kazakhstan, in particular) which are influencing recent credit expansions. We find that the hydrocarbon sector has boosted boosting domestic credits through a number of direct and indirect routes. Recent decline in oil prices may change government attitudes to a continued resource nationalist strategy. Sovereign wealth funds that were established in a majority of energy rich emerging economies may, to the extent that they enable the selection of winners in specific economic sectors, create path dependency or exacerbate longer term allocative inefficiency arising from the governance structure associated with resource nationalism.