The trade turnover between Russia and the United States in January-March totaled $5977 billion, amounting to an increase of 24%, the Russian Federal Customs Service said.
Exports from Russia to the U.S. amounted to $2.686 billion, marking an increase of 18%, while imports to Russia from the U.S. amounted to $3.292 billion, up by 29.4%.
The U.S. share in the total turnover of Russian foreign trade for the indicated period increased to 3.8% from 3.1% last year.
The advisor on macroeconomics to the CEO of the 'Opening-Broker' brokerage house, economist Sergey Hestanov, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that the growth in turnover is associated not so much with the increase in trade, as with currency revaluation. "We have such factors as currency rates and the cost of supplied goods affecting customs statistics. Accordingly, it's likely that prices rose in many product groups. Considering the fact that Russia supplies a lot of metals to the U.S., for example, titanium, it is possible that it was precisely the rise in their prices that led to an increase in customs statistics. Most of the deliveries are based on long-term contracts, within which there is no reason to expect a strong change in physical volumes," he explained.
The growth of trade can also be associated with the expectation of new anti-Russian sanctions. "Of course, this is possible not for all product groups. But 24% is not so much, taking into account how high prices for metals can rise," Sergey Hestanov stressed.
Professor of the RANEPA faculty of Finance, Money Circulation and Credit, Yuri Yudenkov, also told about the important role of the U.S. in the Russia-American trade turnover. "Prices for three Russia's export positions can grow: oil, liquefied gas and metals. At the same time, supply volumes are small in absolute figures, so growth in percent can be quite significant. In general, this trend in the Russian Federal Customs Service's statistics is normal, the finance issue is very vague now," he noted.
"In general, Russia has already prepared for the sanctions. It has created its own national payment system, from reserves of $200 billion only $15 billion are stored in dollars now. At the same time, foreign trade and finance are weakly connected with each other, there’s still the question of who will suffer heavy losses if the American counterparties are not able to pay off Russian plants for the supply of raw materials," Yuri Yudenkov added.
