Some member states have increased trade turnover by more than 200%, the news agency says
Three quarters of EU member states increased their trade with Russia in the first eight months of 2022, RIA Novosti reported on Saturday, citing data collected from the bloc’s various national statistics departments.
Russia’s trade with Bulgaria and Greece reportedly increased by 240% and 230% respectively, while trade turnover with Slovenia doubled between January and August this year. Meanwhile, Austria and the Czech Republic increased their trade with the sanctioned nation by 80%. At the same time, Russia’s trade with both Hungary and Italy increased by 70%. Belgium and Cyprus also recorded increases of 60%.
Overall, 20 of the 27 bloc members saw a 34% year-on-year increase in bilateral trade with Russia. In monetary terms, trade turnover rose to 177.3 billion euros compared to 132.4 billion euros for the same period a year ago.
Meanwhile, Russia’s one-to-one trade with Malta saw a dramatic drop of 80%, while both Denmark and Sweden reduced their trade with the nation by 49%. Luxembourg’s trade with Russia also fell, by 28%. The decline in Russia’s mutual trade with Finland and Lithuania amounted to 7% and 6% respectively. Portugal reduced its trade with the country by 3%.
Trade between these seven countries and Moscow amounted to 14.2 billion euros, compared to 17.3 billion euros a year earlier.
As a result, trade turnover between Russia and the EU increased by 28% in January-August 2022 compared to the same period a year ago, reaching EUR 191.5 billion. Of these, the EU’s exports to Russia amounted to EUR 36.2 billion, while imports from Russia amounted to EUR 155.3 billion.
Thus, the EU’s trade deficit for the first eight months of the current year amounted to 119.1 billion euros, reaching the highest level since 2008, when it amounted to 151 billion euros for the whole year.
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(RT.com)
Source: sn.dk