Russia
Top Trade Partners, Exports, Imports of Russia
Among the major emerging markets, Russia is one of the few countries that holds an abundance of various natural resources such as crude oil, natural gas, iron ore, etc. Though the country’s stock market fell hard last year, Russia is an attractive destination for investors who can take advantage of the wild swings in the commodity markets. In this post lets take a quick look at the top exports, imports and trade partners of Russia for 2008.
What are the major exports and imports of Russia?
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The largest exports comprising nearly 66% of total exports is oil and other mineral fuels. The next major export commodity is iron and steel. Major imports into Russia include vehicles and machinery.
Not surprisingly the major components of the Market Vectors Russia ETF (RSX) are commodities. The Top 4 stocks in the portfolio are oil and natural gas stocks. As of August 31,2009 the ETF is up by nearly 80%. The expense ratio is 0.62% and the fund has an asset base of about $940M.
What are the major trade partners of Russia?
Due to close proximity and high energy demand, Europe is the largest export market for Russia.The top 3 countries for Russian Exports in 2008 were The Netherlands, Italy and Germany. The major source of imports were China, Japan and Germany.
Russia’s GDP per capita has been steadily increasing since 2000 as the graph shows below.
Source: Country Profile, Russian Federation 2009
Statistics Germany
Unlike many developed economies, Russia has a budget surplus and the public accounted for 6.4%of GDP in 2008. In terms of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in 2007, inward FDI was $324 B and outward FDI was$255B.
Despite having vast natural resources Russia still lacks modern infrastructure. The majority of goods are still transported mostly by railroads as the highway system is not up to global standards.There is tremendous potential for growth in the retail, automotive and infrastructure sectors.
