Russia's trade surplus decreased by 51 percent to $7.7 billion in March of 2016, from a $15.8 billion surplus a year earlier and below market expectations of $8.5 billion.
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Exports fell 30.1 percent and imports went down at a slower 10.6 percent.
Exports fell 30.1 percent year-on-year to $22.9 billion while imports decreased 10.5 percent to $15.2 billion, central bank data showed.
The trade surplus with non-CIS countries declined 54.8 percent to $5.95 billion and trade surplus with CIS countries fell 33.4 percent to $1.76 billion.
According to more detailed data from Russian Customs Statistics, trade surplus went down by 47 percent year-on-year to $8.8 billion in March 2015. Exports decreased by 28.8 percent to $23.4 billion while imports fell by 10.3 percent to $14.5 billion.
Exports to non-CIS countries decreased to $20.3 billion. The biggest drop was reported for: fuels and energy products (by 35.2 percent to $11.8 billion) followed by metals (by 23.5 percent to $2.2 billion); chemical products (by 34.3 percent to $1.5 billion), machinery and equipment (by 16.8 percent to $1.3 billion) while foodstuffs and raw materials increased (by 11 percent to $1.1 billion).
Exports to CIS countries declined to $4.0 billion: fuels and energy products (by 36.6 percent to $1.1 billion); metals (by 23.6 percent to $0.3 billion) and machinery and equipment (by 1.4 percent to $0.4 billion) while chemical products (by 11.2 percent to $ 0.5 billion) and foodstuffs and raw materials (by 4.1 percent to $0.3 billion) went up.
Imports from non-CIS countries declined by 16.6 percent to $13.2 billion. The fall was mainly driven by: machinery and equipment (by 11.2 percent to 6.3 billion) followed by foodstuffs and raw materials (by 6.8 percent to 1.8 billion, chemical products (by 3.3 percent to $2.6 billion); textiles and footwear (by 17 percent to $0.8 billion); metals (by 10 percent to $0.7 billion).
Purchases from CIS countries went down to $by 18.5 percent to 1.4 billion led by chemical products (by 29.7 percent to $0.2 billion) and mineral products (by 44 percent to $0.14 billion). In contrast, purchases of machinery and equipment (by 13.8 percent to $0.3 billion) and foodstuffs and raw materials (by 16 percent to $0.27 billion) rose.
The biggest trade surpluses in March were recorded with the Netherlands ($2.1 billion); Turkey ($1.1 billion) Belarus ($0.56 billion) and South Korea ($0.54 billion). The largest trade deficits were recorded with US ($0.4 billion trade gap) and France ($0.36 billion gap). ■