Business news

MOSCOW, 18 March (BelTA) – Belarus has been named Russia’s top trading partner in the Commonwealth of Independent States for two years in a row. The statement was made by Russian First Deputy Economic Development Minister Alexei Likhachev during the CIS economic forum “25 years together: New formats of interaction” in Moscow on 18 March, BelTA has learned.

According to the official, in 2015 Belarus-Russia trade totaled $25 billion. Belarus is followed by Kazakhstan with $15 billion. Ukraine has been downgraded to the third place. Ukraine was Russia’s top trading partner in the CIS prior to 2014.

According to the Russian First Deputy Economic Development Minister, while trade volume in the Commonwealth of Independent States has dropped in U.S. dollar terms, trade volume has grown larger in physical terms. “Trade figures in the CIS space are much less dramatic than the overall figures in global trade,” said Alexei Likhachev.