US Dollar and Euro’s Share in Russia’s Foreign Trade Declines
According to the Russian Central Bank’s statistics, the US dollar and euro’s share in the currency structure of goods exports from Russia has declined for the first time in a year-on-year comparison. In 2024, the share of the US dollar and euro decreased to 18.6%, a 13-percentage-point drop from 31.6% in the previous year.
This shift occurred against the backdrop of a rise in the share of currencies of friendly countries to 40.2%, up from 29.4% in the previous year. Asian countries, which are Russia’s largest trading partners, primarily used “friendly currencies” in 2024, accounting for 46.6% of the total, a 10.9-percentage-point increase from the previous year.
Europe, on the other hand, mainly used the ruble for export payments, with the ruble’s share increasing to 60.3%, an 11-percentage-point rise from the previous year.
For the second consecutive year, the ruble held the second-largest share in export payments, at 41.3%, a mere 2.3 percentage points higher than in 2023.
In the context of imports, the ruble’s share in the currency structure of import payments increased to 43.2%, a 13.2-percentage-point rise. The share of neutral currencies decreased by 1.3 percentage points to 34.7%, while the share of the US dollar and euro declined by 12 percentage points to 22%.
Asian countries primarily used currencies of friendly countries, with the share decreasing by 3.6 percentage points to 47.2%. In contrast, the ruble’s share in the Asian region increased by 16.4 percentage points to 39.2%.
The ruble’s share in import payments from Europe rose by 7.3 percentage points to 54.5%, while the share of the US dollar and euro decreased by 7.2 percentage points to 41.8% and the share of neutral currencies remained unchanged at 3.7%.
Since 2022, the share of the US dollar and euro in export payments has been declining, driven by the imposition of Western sanctions on Russia following the military special operation in Ukraine. For comparison, in 2021, before the sanctions were imposed, the share of the US dollar and euro was 84.6%, which decreased to 63.6% by the end of 2022. The 2024 value was influenced by the decline in the use of the US dollar and euro by Asian and European countries.