The inflow of foreign investment into Russia exceeded $40 billion last year, the government press service said on Tuesday.

It also said foreign investment in Russia was $35 billion in the first nine months of 2009.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said earlier on Tuesday capital investment in the Russian economy decreased 41% last year and urged the government to work out measures to attract investment as the global economy continued to recover from recession.

He also said last year's statistics on foreign investment in Russia were disquieting and proposed an array of measures to rectify the situation, in particular lifting quotas on the employment of foreign specialists and easing customs clearance procedure for engineering and hi-tech companies.

At the same time, Medvedev said Russia, which was hit hard by the global crisis, had managed to avoid "panicky capital flight."

MOSCOW, February 2 (RIA Novosti)