Customs Union foreign trade slips 1.3% to $297.1 bln in Jan-April
MOSCOW. June 17 (Interfax) - The Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus, did $297.1 billion worth of trade with non-CU countries in January-April, according to the latest figures from the Eurasian Economic Commission, which was 1.3% - or $4 billion - less than in the same period of last year.
Exports to third countries amounted to $189.9 billion and imports from them to $107.2 billion. Exported goods were worth 5.8%, or $11.6 billion, less, imported goods 7.7%, or $7.7 billion, more.
This meant a surplus of trade in goods of $82.7 billion for the four months. The surplus was $102 billion in January-April of last year.
Russian exports were down 3.5% at $157.3 billion and imports up 6.3% at $92.4 billion, for a surplus of $64.9 billion. Belarusian exports were down 35.0% at $7.3 billion and imports up 22.1% at $6.2 billion, for a surplus of $1.1 billion. And Kazakh exports were down 7.4% at $25.3 billion and imports up $14.5% at $8.6 billion, for a surplus of $16.7 billion.
Mutual trade among Customs Union members amounted to $20.4 billion for the four months, down 10.0% year-on-year.
Trade between Russia and Belarus was down 15.5% at $12.9 billion, between Russia and Kazakhstan it was up 1.9% at $7.2 billion, and between Belarus and Kazakhstan it was down 12.2% $251.5 million.
The proportion of the flow of goods between Russia and Belarus was 63.3%, between Russia and Kazakhstan 35.5%, and between Belarus and Kazakhstan 1.2%.
"The decrease in the volume of mutual trade was driven by a substantial drop in oil product deliveries from the Russian Federation to the Republic of Belarus (after almost quadruple-digit growth in January-April 2012 compared with the corresponding period of 2011). Not counting fuel and energy goods, mutual trade volume between the member states of the Customs Union and Common Economic Space remained at the level of January-April 2012 (100.4%)," according to Eurasian Economic Commission materials.
