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Russia’s trade balance surplus down 48.9% in Jan-May 2016 — ministry

MOSCOW, June 27. /TASS/. Russia’s trade balance surplus has decreased 48.9% to $38.5 bln in Jan-May 2016, runs the January-May 2016 monitoring released by the Economic Development Ministry on Monday.

Export of goods amounted to $106.1 bln in the reporting period, a 30% decrease compared with January-May 2015 while import of goods stood at $67.5 bln, an 11.3% decrease year-on-year, the ministry said.

Exports to non-CIS countries dropped by 30.3% in January-May 2016 year-on-year to $91 bln while exports to CIS-countries plunged by 28.2% to $15.1 bln.

The share of non-CIS countries in Russia’s total volume of exports slipped by 0.4 percentage points in the reporting period to 85.8% while the share of CIS countries increased to 14.2%.

Imports from non-CIS countries went down by 10.6% in January-May 2016 year-on-year to $60.1 bln while imports from CIS countries decreased by 16.3% to $7.4 bln.

The share of non-CIS countries in Russia’s total volume of imports rose by 0.6 percentage points in the reporting period versus January-May 2015 to 89% while the share of CIS countries slipped to 11%.

Russia’s GDP dropped by 1% in January-May 2016 compared with the same period last year.

"According to the Russian Economic Development Ministry, GDP contraction equaled to 0.8% in May versus May 2015 while in January-May (2016) GDP contracted by 1% versus the same period last year," the report said.