China’s exports to Russia fall 15.7% y/y in March

China’s dollar-denominated exports to Russia fell by 15.7%in March from a year earlier, while imports grew by 8.4%,customs data showed on Friday.

Beijing and Moscow have strengthen their trade and military ties with both facing U.S. sanctions.

Two-way trade hit $19.6 billionlast month, data from China’s General Administration of Customs showed.

In yuan terms, China’s January-March exports to Russia rose 5.5%and imports were up 10.8%, customs data showed.

Last year, Russia became China’s top crude oil supplier, leapfrogging Saudi Arabia, with the world’s biggest crude importer defying Western sanctions over the Kremlin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine to purchase vast quantities of discounted oil for its processing plants.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited Beijing this week and agreed with China’s Xi Jinping that the two countries “will continue to implement new strategic tasks”.

China’s 2023 two-way trade with Russia hit $240 billion, setting a new record high.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Joe Cash and Ethan Wang; editing by Jason Neely)