BOFIT Viikkokatsaus / BOFIT Weekly Review 2016/06
For 2015 overall, Russian goods exports contracted a bit over 30 % and had a value of about $340 billion. Crude oil, oil products and natural gas accounted for 64 % of total goods exports (a slight drop from earlier due to the sharp decline in oil prices). The volume of crude oil exports rose 9 %, oil products 4 % and natural gas 8 %. Export volumes were also up for certain metals, fertilisers and wood products. Metals accounted for nearly 10 % of exports, while chemical products and machinery & equipment each accounted for over 7 % of exports.
The value of goods imports was $190 billion, down nearly 40 % y-o-y. Again, the largest import category (45 %) was machinery, equipment and transport equipment, even if imports in this category have fallen dramatically for a while due to weak investment demand (e.g. the volume of imported passenger cars fell by half last year). As a result, pharmaceuticals became the largest single import category, and chemical products overall accounted for nearly a fifth of all imports. Foodstuffs rose slightly to nearly 15 % of imports.
EU countries saw their share of Russian foreign trade shrink slightly last year. Just under half of Russian exports went to the EU and just under 40 % of imports came from the EU. Asian countries, in contrast, saw slight increases to nearly 20 % of exports and 30 % of imports. China accounted for over 8 % of Russian exports and nearly 20 % of imports. The shares of Eurasian Economic Union countries rose slightly (due in part to the accession of Kyrgyzstan) to about 8 % for both exports and imports.