NOVOSIBIRSK, June 13. /TASS/. Mutual trade between the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) in the Q1 2024 increased by 7% year-on-year to 2 trillion rubles ($22.17 bln), Russian Deputy Minister of Economic Development Dmitry Volvach said on Thursday.

"We continue to increase both mutual trade and trade with third countries. Compared to the same period in 2023, in January - March 2024, mutual trade between the EAEU member states grew by another 7%. … In value terms, it’s almost 2 trillion Russian rubles," Volvach said.

He clarified that in 2023, mutual trade between the EAEU member states increased by 5.4% compared to 2022 and amounted to 7.4 trillion rubles ($82.04 bln), which Volvach called a record figure for the entire existence of the union.

He added that the growth of gross domestic product (GDP) of the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) in the Q1 of 2024 reached more than 5%. "EAEU’s economic indicators for 2023 are growing steadily. Thus, the increase in EAEU GDP in 2023 reached 3.8%, which is higher than the global gross domestic product of 3.2%, according to the IMF. We see that the dynamics continues and this year, from January to March 2024, the EAEU’s GDP increased by 5.3%," Volvach said.

He noted that the economy of Armenia grew by another 14%, Kyrgyzstan - by 9%, Belarus - by more than 4%, and Kazakhstan - by around 4%. "As for Russia, we see continued economic growth of 5.4% in the first quarter of this year," Volvach noted.