Page 61 - RusRPTMay21

year earlier. As a result, Russia's revenues from exports of goods and services were only 4% lower in dollars year-on-year, but the drop in euros was still 12%. Revenues from exports of crude oil, petroleum products and natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas were still quite weak, ie one-fifth lower in euros than a year ago. Other revenue from exports of goods rose by a few per cent year-on-year.
In the first quarter, Russia's expenditure on imports of goods and services reached a year-on-year level in dollars, while in euros it was still 8% lower than a year earlier. Imports of goods have clearly recovered, as the value of imports rose by a few per cent year-on-year, even in euros. The sluggish recovery in merchandise export earnings and rising imports of goods kept Russia's merchandise trade surplus exceptionally moderate.
Both exports and imports of Russian services remained weak, especially as tourism was still largely at a standstill, but trade in other services also developed weakly. The deficit in trade in services narrowed to an unusually small level, largely due to Russia's very low spending on foreign tourism. The capital income and expenditure deficit also remained relatively small. Against this background, both capital income and expenditure have decreased. Expenditure on investment in foreign companies in particular fell sharply last year. Income from investments abroad by Russian companies and banks, on the other hand, has gradually declined over the past year as well as in the first quarter of this year.
Russia's current account surplus has continued to decline slightly, reaching 12% of GDP in the first quarter. The financial account was still quite in deficit in the first quarter of the year, ie a net amount of net capital inflows from Russia went abroad. This was partly due to the unusually large withdrawal of foreign investment from the secondary market for government bonds. The net inflow of capital from the private sector abroad remained quite high. The flow of direct investment from abroad to enterprises (excluding banks) remained low. The gradual withdrawal of investment in corporate bonds from abroad continued, as did the contraction in corporate foreign credit. Companies made the most direct investments abroad after the beginning of 2019, and companies' investments in foreign bonds continued. Banks significantly increased their foreign assets.
Russia is planning to expand both exports and imports in 2021 by a quarter and 10% respectively, according to a new forecast from the Ministry of Economic Development released on April 26.
According to the ministry’s outlook for Russia’s socio-economic development, seen by TASS news agency, outbound shipments of goods from the county are set to reach $411.7bn this year. This is a 23.9% increase compared to 2020 when exports stood at $332.2bn, as cited by Russia Business Today.
61 RUSSIA Country Report May 2021 www.intellinews.com