Page 72 - RusRPTJan23

Trade turnover between Japan and Russia dropped by 35.5% in November 2022 y/y, according to information published by the Japanese Ministry of Finance.
In particular, exports to Russia fell by 34.2%, while imports lost 36.1%, mainly due to a decrease in imports of Russian liquified natural gas (by 14.4%) and coal (by 59.5%). Moreover, imports of Russian grain and non-ferrous metals to Japan plunged by 86.9% and 40.5% in November, respectively. That said, import volumes of Russian vegetables and nonferrous metal ores soared by 57.7% and by 520.4%, respectively. The supplies of fish and seafood decreased by 17.5% in the reporting period.
Japan boosted supplies of cars and medical goods to Russia in November y/y. Particularly, exports of medical products climbed by 115%, while deliveries of cars added 7.7% to 25,700 units.
Exports of other goods went down in the period as computer supplies lost 75%, deliveries of steel and other metal products plunged by 93%, pulp and paper product supplies fell by 57.5%. Exports of car components also dropped - by 76.2%.
Japan’s imports of Russian non-ferrous metal ore increased by 520.4% on the year in November, the Japanese Finance Ministry said on December 16. Imports of metal products grew by 23.1% in the period. Japan's coal imports from Russia declined 59.5% on the year, liquefied natural gas (LNG) ones 14.4%.
5.2.2 Current account dynamics
According to preliminary data from the CBR, Russia posted a current account surplus of $10.3bn in November, down from $17.7bn in October and $16.5bn last November, but much higher than the surpluses seen in November of 2019 and 2020.
This brought the current account surplus over 11m22 to $225.7bn. The narrowing of the current account surplus in November was attributable to the goods and services surplus, which shrank to $12.7bn from $19.3bn in October due to lower oil and gas exports and a recovery in imports. This put the goods and services surplus over 11m22 at $269.8bn. With all that being said, the current account data is subject to revision.
The 11m22 data was generally in line with our expectations. We anticipate a current account surplus of around $10bn in December as well. This would bring the surplus over the full year to $235bn. Next year, we expect the current account surplus to shrink to $120bn due to higher imports and lower exports.
72 RUSSIA Country Report January 2023 www.intellinews.com