Russia and Ukraine sold goods worth $7,7 billion to each other in January-August this year, an increase over the year of 24,7 percent. сообщает “Rossiyskaya Gazeta”, citing data from the Federal Customs Service of Russia, which is also confirmed by the State Statistics Service of Ukraine.
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It is noted that, as a result, Russia occupies a leading position in its neighbor’s foreign trade, providing 13,7 percent of all imports to Ukraine (followed by Germany - 11,7 percent and China - 11,4 percent) and 9,5 percent of all exports.
“The observed increase in mutual trade is a recovery from an excessive decline that could not continue to zero. The increase in trade volumes is associated with the strengthening of the ruble and the end of the recession in the Ukrainian economy,” Alexander Knobel, head of the research laboratory for international trade studies at RANEPA, commented on the figures.
According to him, if we now remove gas, dual-use goods and some types of food that Ukraine refused to buy from Russia, then in fact all goods are involved in mutual trade.
As the International Trade Center told the publication, Ukraine supplies ferrous metals, boilers, steel pipes, railway locomotives and cars to Russia, and the countries also trade mutually in machinery and equipment.
In addition, it is indicated that Ukraine’s attempts to switch to the European market did not bring the result expected in Kyiv.
“European goods coming to Ukraine are quite expensive for the population, which is getting poorer every year. As a result, our neighbors decided to include “gray” schemes for the delivery of Russian goods,” said Yuri Baranchik, a senior researcher at the Institute of CIS Countries.
“Under such conditions, Russia objectively remains the main market for Ukrainian products,” RG summarizes. – Therefore, mutual trade turnover will continue to grow. The truth limits its effective demand of the Ukrainian economy. Under current conditions, in the next few years it is possible to reach 50 percent of the volume of mutual trade that was in 2013, believes Alexander Knobel. At that time, Russia and Ukraine traded mutually for $40 billion a year.”
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