Russia remained the largest market for Ukrainian goods in the first six months of 2014, according to a report released by Ukraine’s State Statistics Committee on Tuesday.
The report shows that Kiev reduced exports to Russia by 23.3% in January-June 2014, year on year. Nevertheless, Ukraine sold goods worth $5.7 billion to Russia or 20% of Ukraine’s total exports ($28.6 billion) and several times more than the ex-Soviet republic’s exports to any other country.
For comparison, Turkey, which ranks 2nd in Ukraine’s exports, bought goods worth only $1.86 billion from Ukraine while Poland bought $1.49 billion and China $1.45 billion worth of Ukrainian goods.
Italy purchased goods worth $1.42 billion, Egypt $1.39 billion and India $959 million from Ukraine, the data showed.
Ukraine’s imports from Russia also declined, falling by 14.4%. Nevertheless, imports from Russia totaled $8.17 billion in the first half of 2014 or almost a third of Ukraine’s total imports ($28.8 billion).
Ukraine’s second largest importer was China with imported goods worth $2.5 billion, followed by Germany with $2.3 billion, Belarus with $1.95 billion, Poland with $1.45 billion and the United States with $1.03 billion.