“Record high rates”: due to which the trade turnover between Russia and China exceeded $190 billion for the first time

In 2022, the trade turnover between Russia and China increased by 29.3% compared to 2021 and amounted to $190.27 billion. This was announced on Friday, January 13, by the General Administration of Customs of China.

According to the department, the achieved value was the highest in the history of trade relations between the two states.

In total, from January to December, the volume of deliveries of products from China to Russia increased by 12.8%, to $76.12 billion. Meanwhile, Moscow increased sales of its goods to Beijing by 43.4% at once, to $114.15 billion.

“Despite the unfavorable external situation, illegitimate restrictions and direct blackmail from some Western countries, Russia and China managed to ensure record high growth rates of mutual trade... With such dynamics, we will be able to achieve the target of $200 billion set by us by 2024 ahead of schedule,” — Russian President Vladimir Putin said on December 30 at a video conference meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The head of China also noted the steady growth of bilateral trade.

According to him, the cornerstone in relations between Moscow and Beijing is energy cooperation.

At the same time, the countries are expanding investment partnerships and implementing a number of joint projects in priority sectors, Xi Jinping added.

“In the face of a difficult and far from unambiguous international situation, we are ready to build up strategic cooperation with Russia, provide each other with development opportunities, and be global partners for the benefit of the peoples of our countries and in the interests of stability around the world,” the head of China stressed.

• December 30, 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin during videoconference talks with President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping

• RIA News

• © Mikhail Klimentiev

The volume of Russian-Chinese trade has been steadily increasing for several years now.

Meanwhile, trade growth accelerated in 2022 as Moscow began actively redirecting supplies of its products from West to East due to US and EU sanctions.

Olga Belenkaya, head of the macroeconomic analysis department of FG Finam, spoke about this in an interview with RT.

According to her, about 60% of exports from Russia to China are energy products.

First of all, we are talking about oil, as well as pipeline and liquefied natural gas, the expert noted.

“The increase in global energy prices during most of 2022 also played a role in the growth of trade indicators.

At the same time, in addition to hydrocarbons, Russia exports copper and copper ore, timber, fuel and seafood to China,” Belenkaya added.

China, meanwhile, is actively supplying smartphones, industrial and specialized equipment, children's toys, shoes, air conditioners and computers to Russia, the analyst said.

Moreover, Chinese business began to actively occupy the vacant niches in the Russian market after a number of Western companies decided to leave the Russian Federation, reminded the head of the analytical department of AMarkets Artyom Deev.

“In particular, China is rapidly replacing Western automakers by supplying its car models to Russian showrooms.

It should also be taken into account that Beijing is one of Moscow's main partners in the issue of parallel imports, since a significant part of the goods to replace European and American ones comes to us from the Asian republic, ”said the source of RT.

Recall that parallel imports mean the importation of original foreign products into Russia without the consent of the copyright holders.

The government approved the corresponding initiative back in March to provide the domestic market with demanded goods against the backdrop of the departure of many foreign brands and Western trade restrictions on Moscow.

Parallel import itself started working in May 2022, and over the past time, under this program, 2.4 million tons of foreign products worth more than $20 billion have been imported to Russia, as the head of the FCS, Vladimir Bulavin, said at the end of December in an interview with the Russia 24 channel. .

Currency transition

It is noteworthy that today almost half of Russian-Chinese trade is carried out in national currencies.

This was previously stated by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.

Moreover, as the head of the Cabinet believes, in the future, the transition to rubles and yuan in the calculations will only gain momentum.

“It is precisely these calculations that should dominate.

This is the logic of the sovereign economic and financial policy of the multipolar world,” Mishustin noted on December 5 at a meeting with Premier of the State Council of China Li Keqiang.

According to the latest data from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, from January to September 2022, the share of the dollar in transactions on the Russian market decreased from 52% to 34%, and the euro from 35% to 19%.

At the same time, the share of the yuan in trade operations increased from 0.4% to 14%, and the share of the ruble from 12.3% to 32.4%.

In addition, at the end of December, the Russian Ministry of Finance set new parameters for filling the National Welfare Fund (NWF).

In particular, it was decided to get rid of the currencies of unfriendly countries in the structure of the NWF and to double the shares of the yuan and gold to 60% and 40%, respectively.

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In general, the increase in the volume of trade with China, as well as with India, in many ways allowed the Russian economy to quickly adapt to Western sanctions.

Alexey Fedorov, an analyst at TeleTrade, shared this opinion in a conversation with RT.

“Asian partners have significantly increased their purchases of Russian energy resources and turned out to be ready to arrange the supply of goods to Russia for parallel imports or to replace analogues of goods from unfriendly countries.

As a result, the decline in the domestic economy at the end of the year turned out to be several times less than many international analysts initially predicted,” the expert emphasized.

In 2023, the Russian-Chinese trade turnover will continue to grow and may exceed $200 billion, experts believe.

According to Artyom Deev, the gradual lifting of quarantine restrictions in China will play in favor of strengthening trade flows.

It is assumed that energy consumption in the Asian republic will increase, while the prices of raw materials will remain relatively high.

This should lead to an increase in monetary indicators of Russian exports.

Alexei Fedorov adheres to a similar assessment.

“Given the industrial specifics of the Chinese economy, which implies a significant level of consumption of raw materials, as well as a significant shift in imports to Russia from China, we can expect that the trade turnover between the two countries will continue to grow at a rapid pace close to 2022.

Despite the slowdown in the global economy, by the end of 2023, the volume of mutual trade can reach $235-245 billion,” Fedorov concluded.