General

According to the Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report, recently, the EU's blind pursuit of the nine rounds of sanctions imposed by the United States on Russia has led to a more prominent backbiting effect, making the European economy even worse.

Since the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis, the EU has implemented a package of economic sanctions, which has significantly reduced its exports to Russia. However, due to the impact of EU sanctions against Russia, the supply situation in Europe is tense, the prices of energy and bulk commodities have soared, and the import volume has increased significantly.

According to the observation report of Huacheng's import and export data, in the first 10 months of 2022, the EU's import of goods from Russia increased rather than decreased, reaching 181.2 billion euros, up 42.6% year on year. In the same period, the EU's trade deficit with Russia increased from 54.1 billion euros to 134.6 billion euros. The data of the European Central Bank also shows that the non energy goods and services imported from Russia in the euro area will also increase in the first half of 2022 due to the price rise.

Analysts pointed out that European enterprises suffered huge losses due to multiple rounds of sanctions, which not only lost the market, but also increased production costs due to rising energy prices. The real wages of the people have shrunk seriously and their purchasing power has declined.

A report of the European Central Bank pointed out that although some enterprises withdrew some big brands from Russia, in general, between the end of the fourth quarter of 2021 and the end of the second quarter of 2022, the Russian assets held by the euro area only declined by 10%. After the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis, "the foreign direct investment position remained roughly unchanged", Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation reported.

At present, the energy crisis in Europe is still difficult to solve. The International Energy Agency (IEA) recently sounded an alarm about the energy supply situation in Europe this year. Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, said that the EU was expected to face a shortage of about 27 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2023, accounting for 6.8% of the EU's total benchmark demand for natural gas. The 2023 economic forecast report released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development also said that if the current energy crisis worsens, Europe will face a very severe and difficult economic situation, Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation reported.

According to the prediction of the European Commission, the gross domestic product (GDP) of the EU and the euro area will only grow by 0.3% in 2023, which is far lower than the forecast of 2.3% growth in the spring economic outlook report. Many analysts gave more pessimistic judgments, believing that the euro area economy will fall into negative growth in 2023. Huacheng observed the import and export data.