Russia's non-energy exports in 10 months down 1.5% in value terms - Manturov

UFA. Dec 26 (Interfax) - Russia's non-commodity, non-energy exports (NOEs) decreased 1.5% in value terms in January-August 2022 year-over-year, Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov said during a final session of the Industry Coordinating Council on Saturday.

"These measures [support for foreign trade] helped prevent a critical fall in NOEs and restructure our logistics. We managed to maintain the bar for NOE volumes in value terms. Thus, in the first ten months of 2022 NOEs dropped by just 1.5% in comparison with the same period last year. We quickly restructured the logistics and are finding new cooperation ties and adjusting schemes for mutual payments," Manturov was quoted by the government's press service as saying.

He did not specify NOE volumes in absolute figures.

According to the head of Russian Export Center, Veronika Nikishina, NOEs stood at $153 billion in the first ten months of 2021.

In October, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said that in January-August 2022 NOEs grew by 7% to $125 billion compared with the same period last year. In August, his first deputy Andrei Belousov, citing a forecast for the whole-year NOE dynamic, said: "Thanks to the sanctions efforts, we lost markets in Europe. This, of course, led to quite serious supply restrictions. In terms of figures, the supplies of non-energy exports decreased by more than 13%, and we believe that the yearly decline will be about 17%."

In 2021 Russia's NOEs stood at $193 billion, down 37% from $141 billion in 2020. Metals accounted for the biggest share (25.6%), followed by chemicals (19.6%), machinery (19.1%) and food (17.7%). The biggest importers were China, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Turkey and the United States.