Page 60 - RusRPTMay21

5.0 External Sector & Trade 5.1 External sector overview
According to the Bank of Russia’s preliminary estimate, the current account surplus of the balance of payments of the Russian Federation in the first quarter of 2021 amounted to $16.8bn, decreasing by almost a third compared to the corresponding period of the previous year.
Its dynamics was mainly determined by the compression of the trade surplus to $24.4bn ($33.1bn in January — March 2020), due to extensive recovery of imports of goods and an insignificant lag in exports compared to the previous year.
At the same time, the increase in non-energy exports has almost completely offset the decline in the value of the fuel and energy products supply, that influenced positively on the trade balance. As in the previous periods, a reduction in the balance of services deficit, mainly due to drop in travel services transactions, had a stabilizing effect.
The positive balance of financial transactions of private sector, according to the Bank of Russia’s preliminary estimate, in the first quarter of 2021 totalled $11.8bn compared to $18.1bn in the corresponding period of the previous year.
During the reporting period banks and other sectors increased foreign assets leaving liabilities to non-residents unchanged, what was different from the first quarter of 2020, when the main form of net lending to the rest of the world by the private sector was a reduction in external liabilities.
International reserves increased by $3.7bn as a result of foreign currency transactions carried out by the Bank of Russia under the fiscal rule.
In January-February 2021, Russia's foreign trade turnover amounted, according to the Bank of Russia, to $94.5bn (99.6% to January-February 2020), including exports - $56.1bn (94, 6%), imports - $38.5bn (107.9%). The trade balance remained positive at $17.6bn (in January-February 2020 - positive, $23.6bn).
Russia's export earnings and imports continued to turn for the better in the first quarter of the year, following the fall last spring and summer. As in some previous periods, the outlook for developments is slightly complicated by the fact that the US dollar, which Russia used as a statistical unit for foreign trade, was more than 9% weaker against the euro in the first quarter than a
60 RUSSIA Country Report May 2021 www.intellinews.com