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Russia and Belarus achieve the highest level of economic interaction

Russian-Belarusian trading and economic interaction in 2011 reached the highest level in the history of their bilateral relations

MINSK, February 2 (Itar-Tass) — Russian-Belarusian trading and economic interaction in 2011 reached the highest level in the history of their bilateral relations, Belarussian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Savinykh announced in a news briefing on Thursday.

“Trading and economic interaction in 2011 reached the highest level in the history of Belarusian-Russian relations,” he said, adding that, “the volume of bilateral trade exceeded the record-high level of pre-crisis 2008 by 4.5 billion dollars and amounted to 38.6 billion dollars.”

Savinykh also drew attention to the fact that “the export of tractors, trucks, meat and dairy products to Russia grew considerably - by 468 million dollars, 405 million dollars and 297 million dollars respectively.”

In addition, he said that favourable conditions for the deliveries of hydrocarbons, which were created within the framework of the Common Economic Space, made it possible for Belarus to “increase the import of oil for oil refineries and the volumes of oil products' export to the Russian and European markets.”

According to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, Russia is the key trade partner of the Republic of Belarus. Russia’s share in the Belarussian foreign trade turnover stands at 45 percent.

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