Page 40 - RusRPTDec18

tonnes harvested so far from 98% of harvesting areas. The amount of exports is closely watched by traders anticipating that world's largest wheat exported could limit exports in 2018-2019 season. In 2017/2018 season Russia exported a record 52mn tonnes of grain, including 40mn million tonnes of wheat.
The export of Russian vodka rose 8.3% year-on-year in money terms during January - September 2018 and totalled $99.5mn, the Federal Customs Service said on November 8. Vodka supplies in physical terms declined by 0.5% year-on-year to 1.48bn decaliters in the reporting period, the Customs said. At the same time, vodka export soared 31.6% in monthly terms to $17.6mn in September 2018. Deliveries in physical terms rose 25.3% to 239.2mn decaliters.
Belarus was Russia's fourth biggest trading partner and the biggest in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in January-September 2018, according to the Russian Federal Customs Service. In January- September 2018 the Belarusian-Russian trade amounted to $26.403bn, an increase of 13.9% over the same period in 2017, according to the Russian customs. The leader in Russian trade is China with a trade turnover of $78.7bn in the period, up by 27.8% y/y, followed by Germany ($44.1bn, 24.7%) and then the Netherlands ($33.7bn, 15.5%). Belarus is ahead of Italy, Turkey, US, the Republic of Korea, Japan, Poland, Kazakhstan and France in terms of the monetary volume of trade with Russia. In 2017 Belarus was also the fourth biggest trading partner of Russia among all countries of the world and the first among the CIS countries.
Sanctions imposed on Russia have cost the European Union (EU) some €100bn in lost trade, the Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on November 6 in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pais. The EU is “punishing itself for doing Washington's bidding” Lavrov added going on to say that the sanctions have little economic impact on the US, which has minimal trade and investment in Russia, but badly hurts the EU which has significant amounts of both trade and investment. "Estimates of losses incurred by the EU states from the sanctions vary. According to some estimates, they might amount to over €100bn. It's important that European politicians understand this," the minister said. It is not clear where Lavrov gets this number from but it is likely he is referring to the fall in mutual trade turnover in recent years. Trade turnover between the EU and Russia has fallen from €285bn in 2014 to €191 in 2016 – almost €100bn – although trade recovered somewhat in 2017 to €231bn. Russia retaliated with tit-for-tat measures in 2014 to punish Russia following the annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in May that year. Lavrov said the Kremlin is willing to lift those sanctions at any time.
Trade turnover between Russia and China is up by more than a quarter (28.2%) in the first ten months of this year to $87.2bn, putting the partners on course to top $100bn of total turnover this year, China's General Administration of Customs said on November 7, as cited by Tass. Russia trade turnover year to date has already exceeded last year’s full year result of $84bn of trade turnover. Over the last 10 months, Russia’s exports to China grew by 13% and exceeded $39.27bn. Import of Russian goods and services increased by 44% to $47.97bn. In October, the bilateral trade turnover stood at $10bn. The two countries set a target to hit $100bn of trade turnover a few years ago, but that was stymied by the “silent crisis” years of 2014-2016 that hurt both their economies. However, if trade continues to expand at the same pace as over the first eight months of this year trade turnover should top $100bn by the
40 RUSSIA Country Report December 2018 www.intellinews.com