Europe-Russia trade dwindles as sanctions bite deeper
Trade turnover between Russia and the European Union amounted to €4.9 billion in June, the lowest since September 1999, as reported by "Kommersant" in August. In October, Eurostat reported that since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the value of imports from Russia to EU countries fell by as much as 87 per cent.
In July, Vladimir Milov, a Russian economist sympathetic to the democratic opposition and former deputy energy minister, said Russia's economy under Vladimir Putin is in bad shape and worsening. The chairwoman of the Central Bank and other government representatives openly discuss it.
- Last year, the head of Russia's Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, raised the interest rate to 16 per cent, hoping that a strict monetary policy would curb inflation. It didn't work, because inflation continues to rise - he reminded.
Interest rates up, trade with the EU down
In response to this phenomenon, in July 2024, the Bank of Russia decided to raise the main interest rate to 18 per cent, and by the end of October - to 21 per cent. - The real picture is that this economy is collapsing. Maybe not as quickly as the countries imposing sanctions would like, but it is happening, said Milov in July.
As reported by the Russian "Kommersant" in August, in June, trade turnover between Russia and the European Union amounted to €4.9 billion. This is the lowest figure since September 1999, when trade turnover was €4.6 billion.
According to the newspaper, in June, deliveries of Russian goods to the European Union decreased by 14 per cent compared to May, amounting to €2.5 billion. At that time, the largest part of Russian exports to the European Union was gas (€1.1 billion), oil and petroleum products (€333 million), and iron and steel (€164 million).
Meanwhile, deliveries of European products to Russia in June decreased by 5 per cent month-to-month to €2.4 billion. Key categories of European exports to the Russian Federation were pharmaceutical products (€634 million) and equipment (€262 million) and optical instruments (€203 million).
This is how imports from Russia have fallen since the beginning of the invasion
At the beginning of October, Eurostat published data on the EU's trade with Russia in the second quarter of 2024. These are the most recent quarterly data available - data for the third quarter will be available at the end of November. Eurostat's data shows that from April to June of this year, imports from Russia to the EU fell by 16 per cent compared to the second quarter of 2023, and EU countries' exports to Russia fell by 9.5 per cent.
Between the first quarter of 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, and the end of the second quarter of 2024, imports from Russia to EU countries fell by a total of 87 per cent - Eurostat calculates.
