MOSCOW, April 07. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s import from Ukraine in the period from January to February 2014 decreased by 30.5% to $1.5 billion, compared to $2.2 billion a year ago, the Russian Federal Customs Service (FCS) has reported.
The export over the reporting period accounted for $3.6 billion, a 2.3% increase year-on-year, from $3.6 billion. The trade turnover decreased to $5.2 billion (minus 10.5%).
Trade surplus between the two countries due to the considerable import reduction has increased by 59.2% to $2.1 billion ($1.3 billion a year earlier).
According to previous reports, in January 2014 Russia's imports from Ukraine decreased by 37% to $698.3 million. At the same time, the volume of Russia’s exports to Ukraine remained practically unchanged, compared to January 2013 and accounted for $2.6 billion. Russia’s trade surplus in turnover with Ukraine in January 2014 reached $1.2 billion against $836.8 million a year earlier.
Thus, the trend towards the reduction of imports from Ukraine continued, although less intensively.
Russian Deputy Economic Development Minister Aleksei Likhachyov had earlier expressed the view that the trend towards the reduction of Russia's imports from Ukraine would persist. In the view of Likhachyov, this dynamics reflects not the accumulated effects, but the reaction to the change of the political situation in Ukraine. “I don’t see any special accumulated effect. Russia has not introduced any protective measures. Apparently, it is just a time when insufficient attention is paid to the Ukrainian economy. To all appearances, the trend will persist. Before the state institutions start to work, both enterprises and relevant ministries and departments face problems. So I think that this trend will persist in the near future,” the deputy minister told ITAR-TASS.
Likhachyov also drew attention to the fact that Russia’s losses from the destabilisation of the situation in Ukraine lie not so much in the sphere of bilateral trade as in the sphere of co-operation ties.