2022 European Union Trade With Russia: Increases & Decreases YTD
The Russian State-Owned Statistics Agency RIA Novosti has claimed that many EU countries have increased their bilateral trade with Russia, citing data from the European Union’s own trade intelligence.
France for example has increased its exports to Russia by 25%. Russian exports to France were worth €1.8 billion in February, but subsequently declined from March until July. But since August, imports from Russia have increased by 25%. French exports to Russia are now running at about €1.1 billion a month. This means that French exporters are tolerating some loss of the Russian market while they adapt, but are not prepared to lose all of it.
Another example is Portugal, which has increased its exports of goods to Russia by almost ten times as of August 2022, and has also increased its imports by €79 million per month.
Germany meanwhile remains the largest EU importer of goods from Russia, having briefly lost this position during 2022 to Italy. Germany regained the title in August, purchasing €2.7 billion of Russian goods compared to €2 billion by Italy. In third place is the Netherlands with monthly imports worth €1.5 billion.
Other European countries have also increased their Russian imports, with Latvia increasing its purchases from Russia by 44%, Austria 27%, Spain 27%, Greece 15% and Slovakia 6%.
However, there are a few countries that have reduced their volume of Russian imports – Slovenia has seen Russian imports decline by 60% and Ireland 63%.
Five countries also increased their exports to Russia in August. The biggest increase was Cyprus increasing by 670% – with Greek Cypriot Ports being seen as a conduit to transit Russian bound exports from other markets such as Turkiye and the Middle East.
Hungarian exports increased 23%, Belgium by 19% and Germany by 13%. Since February, shipments to Lithuania, politically anti-Russian – actually showed a small increase of 2%.
Sweden, with an export drop of 40%, Ireland and Spain (both minus 39%) were the most negatively affected.
The main EU exporters of goods to Russia remain Germany and Italy: German exports in August reached € 1.15 billion, and Italian exports reached €462 million. Third is Poland with exports worth €342 million.
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