MOSCOW, July 2 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is ranked fifth among Europe's most attractive countries for foreign direct investment (FDI), a leading global auditing company said in its annual survey.

Alexander Ivlev, partner at Ernst & Young CIS, said Russia's high position was a result of "strong investment return, rapid growth of the Russian consumer market, and a well-educated and highly qualified workforce."

"We see a marked tendency in the improvement of the local investment climate and believe Russia's investment rating will continue to rise," Ivlev said.

However, the report said that Russia had dropped from ninth to 13th position for the number of investment projects. "While Europe is still number one in attracting foreign direct investments (FDI), both Western, Central, and Eastern European zones lost 13 points in their attractiveness score from the previous year. The lost points went to China and India which provide direct competition at a global level," Ernst & Young said in the survey.

Analysts at Ernst & Young believe that by 2050 the so called BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China - could rank among the world's leading markets together with Indonesia, Mexico, and Turkey. However, Ernst & Young recommended that these countries first improve transparency, openness, and objectiveness of their business strategies.