German imports from Russia collapsed by 91 percent
Since the beginning of the Russian attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Russia has become significantly less important for German foreign trade. In February 2023, imports from Russia fell by 91 percent compared to the same month last year, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Thursday. The value of goods imported from Russia was only 0.3 billion euros, after 3.7 billion euros in February 2022. Russia fell from eleventh to 46th place among Germany’s most important suppliers of goods, the authority said.
The federal government has been trying to reduce dependence on Russia as an energy supplier for over a year. Imports of Russian crude oil and natural gas fell from 2.2 billion euros in February 2022 to just 4.2 million euros in February 2023 (-99.8 percent). Imports of coke oven and petroleum products fell to 30 million euros (-91.4 percent) and coal imports fell to 26 million euros (-92.5 percent). For comparison: In February 2023 Germany imported oil and natural gas with a total value of six billion euros, coke oven and mineral oil products over 2.2 billion euros and coal with a value of 0.7 billion euros.
Exports to Russia have also shrunk. In February, the German economy exported goods worth 0.8 billion euros to Russia, a good 60 percent less than a year ago. The value of the goods delivered to Russia was thus EUR 0.5 billion higher than the value of the goods imported from there. “This was the first monthly export surplus in trade with Russia since December 2020,” the statistics office said. In February 2022 there was still an import surplus of 1.6 billion euros.