MOSCOW, July 11. /TASS/. The foreign trade surplus in Russia lost $6.1 bln in April - June 2023 against the first quarter and stood at $24.1 bln, the Bank of Russia said on Tuesday.

The figure for January - June 2023 fell by more than a factor of three against the first half of 2022 and totaled $54.3 bln, the Central Bank noted.

"The contraction of the surplus in the foreign trade in goods in January - June 2-023 against the like period of 2022 was caused by smaller physical volumes of export supplies and by worsened price situation for main goods of Russian exports. Energy commodities made the most significant input to the drop in cost volumes of exports," the regulator said.

The payment account surplus dropped more than sevenfold to $20.2 bln in Russia in the first half of this year.