Page 42 - RPTRusFeb17

Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. The bill will primarily hit Kazakhstan, since, in addition to sanctioned goods, the country can export to Russia goods from WTO member countries in violation of customs rules in place in Russia. Following Kazakhstan's accession to the WTO in late 2015, the country was forced to lower import duties on a number of goods, making them contradict duties in place in Russia. The Russian government has also consistently complained about huge amounts of sanctioned goods coming to the country via Belarus, and the new regulations will address that as well. However, the draft law is not applicable to goods brought from the union's countries by private citizens.
5.2 Balance of payments, current account
Russia -Trade 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Trade: External balance on goods and services (USD mn)
123,146 162,564 148,023 123,679 134,497 111,638
Trade: External balance on goods and services (% of GDP)
8.08 8.53 7.34 5.93 6.63 9.39
Trade: Goods exports (BoP)
392,674 515,409 527,434 523,275 497,763 339,634
Trade: Goods imports (BoP)
245,680 318,555 335,771 341,337 308,026 193,952
Trade: Current account BPM6 (USD mn)
67,452 97,274 71,282 34,801 58,432 69,564
Trade: Current account to GDP (%)
4.42 5.11 3.54 1.67 3.14 5.85
source: Rosstat
Russia’s balance of payments in the 4Q16 echoed privatisations but remains narrow. The CBR has reported its preliminary estimate of the current account (CA) for 4Q16 at $7.8bn, bringing the total CA surplus in 2016 to $22.2bn. That is almost exactly in line with the CBR’s Monetary Policy Report
42 RUSSIA Country Report February 2017 www.intellinews.com