Year over year, the most recent $198.2 billion in black ink represents an 87.9% increase compared to the $105.5-billion surplus that the Russian Federation earned during 2020.
Mobile phones, automobile parts or accessories, medication mixes in dosage, computers and cars are the major commodities causing Russia’s highest trade deficits by product. In contrast, Netherlands, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Kazakhstan and Poland are the top 5 trade partners at the expense of which Russia earned the highest positive trade surpluses.
To put Russia’s $198.2 billion trade surplus metric into further perspective, the country’s total external debt encompassing both public and private red ink equaled -$478.2 billion at December 2021. Russia’s external debt is over twice the size of its positive international trade balance.
Top Russian Trade Balances by Product and Country
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The following 10 leading products generated a surplus subtotal of $259.7 billion for Russia in its global trade during 2021. Metrics listed below highlight Russia’s strongest competitive advantages over worldwide trading partners.
- Crude oil: US$110.1 billion (Up 51.8% since 2020)
- Processed petroleum oils: $68.6 billion (Up 54.8%)
- Gold (unwrought): $17.3 billion (Down -6.3%)
- Coal, solid fuels made from coal: $17.1 billion (Up 42.1%)
- Iron or non-alloy steel products (semi-finished): $9.2 billion (Up 89.5%)
- Petroleum gases: $8.7 billion (Up 11.5%)
- Platinum (unwrought): $8.4 billion (Up 7.6%)
- Wheat: $7.2 billion (Down -8.1%)
- Aluminum (unwrought): $7 billion (Up 67.6%)
- Sawn wood: $6 billion (Up 43.7%)
From 2020 to 2021, the fastest growers among Russia’s top 10 product surpluses were semi-finished products made from iron or non-alloy steel (up 89.5%), raw aluminum (up 67.6%), processed petroleum oils (up 54.8%), crude oil (up 51.8%) and sawn wood (up 43.7%).
Year over year, top Russian trade surpluses shrank for wheat (down -8.1%) and gold (down -6.3%).
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See also Russia’s Top 10 Imports, Russia Top Trading Partners, Russia’s Top 10 Exports and Russia’s Top 10 Major Export Companies
Research Sources:
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook: Country Profiles. Accessed on March 11, 2022
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on March 11, 2022
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on March 11, 2022
Trading Economics, Russia Total Gross External Debt , Summary. Accessed on March 11, 2022
Wikipedia, Economy of Russia. Accessed on March 11, 2022