Economic situation in Russia continues negatively affecting the import of foreign goods. According to the Federal customs service, in January-July 2015 the decrease in total imports amounted to 40% compared to January-July 2014, reaching 103.6 billion US dollars.
This negative trend has also influenced on passenger car market. Physical volume of import from non-CIS states and CIS countries has decreased markedly compared to January-July 2014 (52% and 63% respectively).
In January-July 2015 on the Russian market were imported the total amount of 205.8 thousand cars cost 3905,4 million USD that accounted for about 4% of the total imported goods in Russia.
Non-CIS states transported in Russia 197.4 thousand cars cost 3826 million dollars, in turn CIS countries transported 8,4 thousand (79,1 million USD).
Dynamics of foreign cars import over the past year is -54%. The volume of imports amounted in monetary terms to 3923 million dollars in the second quarter of 2014, while it has not exceeded 1805 million dollars by the results of 2Q 2015.
Despite the fact that Lada brand has leading position in car sales (161 630 new cars have been bought in January-July 2015, according to the AEB), interest in foreign vehicles still remains. On average, every fourth sold new car has foreign production (based on the AEB statistics: total sales of new cars in January-July 2015 are 913 thousand units).
The most active car exporters in Russia in June 2015 were the following countries: Japan (with statistical value of imports – 168,5 million dollars), Germany (121,5 million USD), UK (70,9 million USD), USA (60,7 million USD) and South Korea (16 million USD).
Sources of information: Federal customs service, Association of European Businesses, Fira-Rosstat.
