Russia plans to boost exports by around 25% this year – reports

As global supply chains and trade recover from the pandemic, Russia is planning to expand both exports and imports in 2021 and beyond, a new forecast from the Ministry of Economic Development shows.

According to the ministry’s outlook for Russia’s socio-economic development, seen by TASS news agency, outbound shipments of goods from the county are set to reach $411.7 billion this year. This is a 23.9% increase compared to 2020 when exports stood at $332.2 billion.

Russia is also set to boost imports this year. The document forecasts that they will rise by more than 10% to $265 billion, up from $240.4 billion last year.

Trade is set to further grow in the coming years with exports and imports steadily growing to hit $464.4 billion and $317.9 billion, respectively, by 2024.

Energy sales have traditionally accounted for a bulk of Russia’s exports, but the volume of non-energy shipments has been rising in recent years. In December 2020, Russia’s non-resource and non-energy exports set a new monthly record and increased around 4% to $161.3 billion for the whole year.

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