Page 45 - RusRPTSept19

5.0 External Sector & Trade 5.1 External sector overview
Russia continues to run a health trade surplus with the total turnover in July up 2.1% year-on-year to $52.4bn of which $32.5bn was exports and $20bn was imports.
Comparing individual months with last year then trade had a strong first quarter but a weaker second quarter, due to the fall in oil prices this year vs last.
Russia’s export regime remains stable with the export of goods and materials ($474bn in June) running at almost double imports ($249nm).
Notable amongst the partners is Ukraine’s trade deficit with Russia. Ukraine received $10.4bn worth of goods from Russia but sold $5.6bn to Russia.
Russia’s exports remain concentrated with the first eight trade partners accounting for half of Russia’s exports, and the first three – China, Germany and Netherlands – making up a third.
The situation is similar with imports with the first six accounting for half Russia’s imports, and China and Germany accounting for a third by themselves.
Interestingly the US accounts for 5.6% of Russia’s imports, but that is enough to put it in the top four biggest trade partners. However, the US only accounts for 3.1% of Russia’s exports, ranking it ninth amongst the partners.
Another new feature of the list is Uzbekistan’s appearance with $3.8bn of imports from Russia that account for 0.8% of the total Russian trade. While this is not a large amount for Russia, it is for Uzbekistan which has entered a period of fast change.
45 RUSSIA Country Report September 2019 www.intellinews.com