Russia's exports to CIS decrease

Russian exports to the CIS countries amounted to $6.8bn in the first sixmonths of 2002, which was 5 percent lower than in the corresponding periodof 2001, the State Customs Committee reported. The main exports were fueland energy products. Their share in the $6.8bn volume of trade was 43.4percent, which was 2.6 percent more than in the first half of last year.The value of Russian natural gas exports to the CIS countries advanced by 2percent, oil exports added 6 percent. However the volume of Russian oilexports jumped by 64 percent. In the middle of 2001 Russian oil exports tothe CIS member states amounted to 1.2m tons of oil per month on average.Starting from February 2002 they were exceeding 2m tons per month. Theshare of the CIS countries in the total volume of Russian oil exportsincreased more than twice as much: from seven to ten percent last year to22-23 percent in the first half of 2002.At the same time the share of machine and equipment exports retreated to18.6 percent in the total volume of Russian exports to the CIS, compared to21.2 percent in the period from January to June 2001. The value of theseexports dropped by 16.6 percent.The volume of Russian gasoline exports added 75.8 percent, ferrous metalswent up by 22.7 percent in the first half of 2002, compared to thecorresponding period of last year..