Russian exports in 2023 fell by 28.3% to $425.1 billion

Russian exports in 2023 compared to 2022 fell by 28.3%, from $592.5 billion to $425.1 billion, the Federal Customs Service (FCS) reported. This significant drop occurred due to a collapse in supplies to European countries. If in 2022 it was $265.6 billion, then in 2023 it shrank to $84.9 billion (minus 68%). The reason is the expansion of sanctions against the Russian Federation. Let us recall that from December 5, 2022, the EU introduced an embargo on the import of Russian oil, and from February 5, 2023, on petroleum products.

Russian exports to Asian countries after the reorientation of supplies to other markets at the end of 2023 increased, but is not comparable with the decline in the European direction – by 5.6%, from $290.4 billion to $306.6 billion. Such a modest increase, however, is explained by including a decrease in prices for Russian oil – according to Chinese customs data, physical oil supplies to China in 2023 increased by 24% (to 107 million tons), but Beijing paid for them only 3.5% more than a year earlier ( $60.7 billion).

Let us note that if in 2022 the volumes of Russian exports to Europe and Asia were comparable, now the situation has changed greatly. The share of Asian countries in the total volume of Russian exports at the end of 2023 was 72%, Europe – only 20%. The remaining 8% of Russian exports go to countries in Africa ($21.2 billion, an increase of 43%) and the Americas ($12.2 billion, a decrease of 40%).

As for imports, according to the Federal Customs Service, in 2023 it grew by 11.7%, to $285.1 billion. This was due to an increase in the volume of imports of goods from Asia by 29.2%, to $187.5 billion (based on From Chinese customs data it follows that the bulk of this amount comes from imports from China – $111 billion). Supplies from Europe decreased by 12.3%, to $78.5 billion, from America – by 11%, to $15 billion. Imports from African countries increased by 8.6%, to $3.4 billion.

Without disclosing statistics on goods, the Federal Customs Service provided them by product groups. As expected, the main export item (61% of the total volume) is “Mineral products” (including oil). The volume of supplies in this category fell by 33.6% in 2023, to $260.1 billion. Exports also decreased for all other groups of goods with the exception of food and agricultural products, where the growth was 4.3%, to $43.1 billion. Imports However, it was primarily its main category (51% of the total volume) that “pulled out” – mechanical engineering products, the import of which increased by 24.1%, to $145.8 billion.

Vadim Visloguzov