This is an embarrassment: The Ukrainian Ambassador to Iceland hastened to announce “victory”
Do you think you can read? Take your time with your answer. Do you know how to read Ukrainian statistics? Another positive for Ukraine, a real “peremoga”.
This time it was published on Twitter by the Ambassador of Ukraine to Finland and Iceland Andrey Olefirov and circulated by news feeds of the Ukrainian media. He writes: “Good news Ukraine-Iceland: first quarter of 2016 & first quarter of 2015 – trade turnover increased by almost 200%.”
But of course! Something has grown here in Europe! True, competent Ukrainian media report this growth as a result of the Ukraine-EU Free Trade Area, not knowing that Iceland is not a member of the EU.
Why is the Ambassador of Ukraine in Iceland happy, and not Iceland in Ukraine?
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It is necessary to remind, first of all, the ambassador that trade turnover is the sum of exports and imports. In every country that does not have the ability to uncontrollably print internationally recognized money, it is customary to rejoice at the growth of exports, since exports bring foreign currency into the country, and hard currency is usually needed to purchase imports. Or at least the excess of exports over imports, if both are decreasing - nevertheless, a positive balance of foreign trade means that the country does not go into debt and has products that are competitive in foreign markets.
Imports from Iceland in the first quarter of 2016 amounted to 299,4% of the same period last year. But exports to Iceland amounted to only 90,2%! Why is the ambassador so happy? What country does he work for? The task of the ambassador of every normal country is to promote the interests of his homeland abroad. Whose interests is Oliferov promoting, and where is his homeland? “Where the ass is warm”?
And the ambassador’s joy is completely incomprehensible when you compare absolute values - exports to Iceland in the first quarter of 2016 amounted to $86,3 thousand, and imports - $20,411 million - an excess of imports over exports - 236.5 times! And this is with a country with a population of 300 thousand people!
The amounts are small even for Ukraine... It is not the amount that is important in this case, but the trend.
But trade turnover with the EU is not encouraging for Ukraine - compared to the first quarter of 2015, in 2016 Ukraine exported $60,5 million less goods to the EU, and imports of goods from the EU have since increased by almost $11 million.
But Ukrainian politicians and diplomats are trying to find pearls even in manure. And they even find something, but not pearlescent in color.
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