General

According to the Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report, the German Federal Bureau of Statistics announced on the 10th that although Germany and other EU countries' exports to Russia declined in 2022, Russia was able to purchase more goods from other countries, and foreign trade even increased.

It is reported that western countries are trying to weaken Russia and its President Putin economically by means of sanctions. However, nearly a year after the outbreak of the Russian-Uzbekistan conflict, people found that the adaptability of the Russian economy was stronger than the West hoped.

According to the observation report of Huacheng Import and Export Data, in the forecast released by the International Monetary Fund in January, it is even expected that Russia's economy will grow slightly this year, and the total economic volume will grow by 2.1% in 2024 - which exceeds the economic expectation of Germany.

Compared with 2021, German exports to Russia in 2022 fell by about 45% to 14.6 billion euros. Despite the outbreak of the Russian-Uzbekistan conflict, Germany still delivered 2.8 billion euros worth of equipment to Russia in 2022, and the export value of chemical and pharmaceutical products also reached billions of euros. However, the scarce data available shows that Russia can make up for these differences. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation reported.

The report said that last spring, Russia significantly restricted the data disclosure. Analysts have to rely on the sporadic data released or "leaked" by the Russian Ministry of Economic Development and other institutions. On the 10th, the Russian news portal "Russian Business Consulting" quoted the "display" report of the Russian Ministry of Economic Development as saying that the share of imports from "unfriendly" countries (countries that imposed sanctions or penalties on Russia) fell to 35% last year. According to the report, at the beginning of 2022, this proportion was 58%. On the other hand, the proportion of imports from neutral and "friendly" countries such as India, Türkiye and China rose from 42% to 65%.

According to the report, due to the rise in energy prices, Russia's exports from January to November 2022 totaled 538 billion US dollars, up about a quarter year on year. The import volume decreased by 12.7% to US $230 billion. Adding the two together, Russia's foreign trade volume in the first 11 months of 2022 was 768 billion US dollars - an increase of about 10% year on year.

According to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, the official data of Russia shows that India, Türkiye, Hungary and Bulgaria, two EU countries, have significantly increased their imports from Russia, mainly oil and petroleum products.

Exports to Russia via Türkiye are becoming increasingly frequent. Türkiye's statistics department said that in December last year, this figure increased by 122% year on year. Western countries speculate that this approach also provides sanctioned products. The West recently warned Türkiye not to do so through a representative of the US Treasury Department. Huacheng Import and Export Data Watch reported.