Russia-China trade turnover jumps almost 20% since beginning of 2021

The volume of trade between Russia and China has reached $40.207 billion in January-April 2021. That’s 19.8% higher than it was in the same period last year, according to Chinese customs data.

China’s exports to Russia were up 38.7%, reaching $18.19 billion in the first four months of the year. Meanwhile, shipments of Russian goods to China saw 7.7% growth to $22.016 billion.

In April alone, trade turnover between the two countries hit over $10 billion. Russian exports to China and Chinese shipments to Russia were almost equal, standing at $5.675 billion and $5.128 billion respectively.

Despite the economic disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, trade between Russia and China still exceeded $100 billion last year, but was down almost 3% compared to 2019. The two countries want to double the volume of trade to $200 billion. The target level could still be reached by 2024, the head of the Russian Export Center, Veronika Nikishina, earlier told TASS.

China’s overall exports have been growing amid the pandemic. The country was the first to face the Covid-19 outbreak and managed to contain the virus faster than others. For the whole of 2020, its outbound shipments increased 3.6% compared to the previous year and amounted to $2.6 trillion due to elevated global demand for Chinese goods. The growth has continued this year. In April alone, China’s exports were up 32.3%, beating analysts’ expectations.

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