Russia’s foreign trade turnover up 12% against pre-pandemic levels

Russia’s foreign trade turnover has grown by 12% compared to its pre-pandemic level of 2019 and is expected to reach $720 billion in 2021, according to data from the Federal Customs Service.

“You know, everything is developing under a rather optimistic scenario. We have a fairly decent foreign trade turnover, and it continues to grow. And not only in comparison to the disastrous last year – even compared to 2019, we have growth of 12%,” Ruslan Davydov, first deputy head of the FCS, told Izvestia newspaper.

According to Davydov, 2019’s indicators will be exceeded this year, and the total trade turnover for 2021 is expected to reach $720 billion.

“At the moment the trade turnover is $480 billion. Imports are $187 billion, and exports are $291 billion,” he said, noting that a positive trade balance has been reached mainly due to energy, which makes up two-thirds of Russia’s exports.

Earlier reports by the Eurostat statistics agency showed substantial growth in trade turnover between Russia and the EU countries. It amounted to $130.8 billion in the first six months of 2021, 25.8% more than last year, and made Russia the EU’s third-largest exporter and the fifth-largest importer of European goods.

Meanwhile, foreign sales of Russian agricultural products saw a hefty year-on-year growth of 18% in 2021, the country’s Ministry of Agriculture said this week. In monetary terms, this growth amounted to some $20 billion, mostly due to soaring exports of grains and oil and fat produce.

For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business section