Press release No. 486 of 18 November 2022
- Germany was the most important importer of Russian goods within Europe and also the most important exporter of goods to Russia in all of the EU
- In relative terms, Bulgaria imported the most goods from Russia (11.5% of its total imports) and Latvia exported the most goods to Russia (9.5%)
WIESBADEN – Goods to the value of 137.8 billion euros were imported from Russia to the European Union (EU) from January to July 2022. Russian goods thus accounted for 3.4% of total imports to the EU, as the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reports on the basis of data from Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Union. In 2021, this proportion was 3.6%.
11.5% of Bulgaria’s imports came from Russia, and only 2.6% of Germany’s imports
Bulgaria was the EU Member State whose imports from Russia accounted for the largest share of total imports from January to July 2022. In that period, Russian goods accounted for 11.5% (3.6 billion euros) of total imports to Bulgaria. Estonia came second with a percentage share of 9.7% (1.4 billion euros) and Finland ranked third with 8.9% (4.8 billion euros). In 2021, Lithuania had been the EU Member State whose imports from Russia accounted for the largest share of total imports (11.9%). This proportion fell to 8.5% in the period of January to July. Finland and Estonia also reduced their imports of Russian goods as a percentage of total imports. In 2021, these had accounted for 11.7% in Finland and 10.6% in Estonia. In contrast, the share of Russian imports increased sharply for Bulgaria (2021: 7.6% of total imports). In Germany, imports from Russia accounted for 2.6% of total imports from January to July 2022. In 2021 it had been 2.4%. The fact that Russian goods accounted for a higher share of total German imports is due to the strong price increases for raw materials and energy products.
