The current account of Russia turned out to be in deficit last month: the balance amounted to minus $1.4 billion. According to RBC, citing data from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the indicator reflecting the integral assessment of all transactions of Russian residents with non-residents went negative for the first time since August 2020. Then the current account deficit was at a similar level of $1.4 billion.
According to the first assessment in June 2023, the current account balance moved into the negative area, which was due, among other things, to the seasonal factor: the announcement of dividends by Russian companies, the regulator explained. A similar situation has already been observed earlier with an unfavorable price environment for Russian exports.
It follows from the Central Bank data that among the components of the current account, the largest deficit was recorded in the balance of primary (wages, investment income, rent) and secondary (personal transfers between residents and non-residents in cash and in kind) income. The deficit on this account was formed due to an increase in income payable to non-residents to $8.3 billion. At the same time, income receivable from non-residents was estimated at $3.6 billion.
According to the materials of the Central Bank, in June, the reduction of merchandise exports continued against the backdrop of already recovered merchandise imports. At the end of the month, imports amounted to $26.1 billion, and exports amounted to $32.5 billion, resulting in a trade balance in goods of $6.4 billion.
The reduction in the surplus of the balance of foreign trade in goods was caused by a decrease in both the physical volumes of export deliveries and the deterioration in the price environment for the main Russian export goods, and energy products made the most significant contribution to the decline in the value of exports, follows from the explanations of the Central Bank.
According to the results of the first half of 2023, the surplus of the balance of trade in goods decreased to $54 billion, which is 3.3 times less than the same indicator for the first half of 2022 (almost $180 billion), follows from the data of the Central Bank. In June 2023, the balance of services deficit also widened to $3.2 billion, up from $3.1 billion in May and $2.2 billion in April, according to the regulator.
Source: Rosbalt
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