I. Kangro: Belarus increased export of services to Russia by a third

According to Deputy Chairman of the National Statistics Committee of Belarus Irina Kangro, Russia remains the largest foreign economic trade partner of Belarus.

According to Deputy Chairman of the National Statistics Committee of Belarus Irina Kangro, Russia remains the largest foreign economic trade partner of Belarus.

As is reported by I. Kangro, over January-September 2010 trade turnover between Belarus and Russia totaled $19438.8 million which is 17.9% more than over the same period last year. During January-September of the current year Belarus exported goods to Russia to the sum of $7018.7 million (an increase of 48.7% on last year’s index) and imported goods to the sum of $12420.1 million (an increase of 5.6% as against the previous year). It should be noted that Russia accounts for 40% of the goods exported by Belarus and 52.8% of total imports.

The volume of services exported and imported by Belarus to and from Russia has also undergone significant changes. In particular, over January-September this year Belarus exported services to Russia to the sum of $731.7 million, whereas last year this index totaled $561.7 million. Thus, the increase in export of services to Russia amounted to 30.3%. At the same time, over the period under review Belarus imported services from Russia to the amount of $384 million, which is 8.9% more than over the same period last year. As I. Kangro noted that the substantial increase in exports to Russia was the result of growing transport services: freight and pipeline transit. It should be observed that the growing volume of services exported by Belarus (from $2534.9 million over January-September 2009 to $3268.5 million, an increase of 28.9%) resulted from a substantial increase in transportation services provided by Belarus.

According to the information provided by I. Kangro, besides Russia, top five of Belarusian largest trade partners includes Ukraine, the Netherlands, Germany and China.