Archive:Russia-EU - basic statistical indicators
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- Data from December 2011. Most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.
This article presents basic statistical indicators and selected trade figures for Russia and the European Union (EU). The Russian Federation was severely hit by the worldwide financial and economic crisis. Russian GDP experienced a noticeable drop between 2008 and 2009, but appeared to be recovering quickly in 2010.
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Russia remains a very important trade partner for the EU, especially with regards to energy supplies: 63 % of the total value of EU-27 imports from Russia in 2010 consisted of oil, another 9 % of gas. Furthermore, some EU countries rely heavily on Russian hard coal. Russia’s primary energy production has been increasing at a regular pace; only between 2008 and 2009 was a noticeable drop registered, although not for crude oil.
The industrial sector remains the main energy consumer. Efforts are being deployed to increase efficiency and reduce energy losses. This should also have positive effects on CO2 emissions.
Main statistical findings
EU-27 and Russia: basic statistical indicators and selected trade figures, 2000–2010 - Russia remains an important energy supplier to the EU, especially for oil. Russia's final energy consumption dominated by industry
The Russian Federation is a federal semi-presidential republic regrouping 83 geographical entities. Russia covers an area of 17.1 million km2, four times the territory of the EU-27. Russia’s population was 141.9 million in 2009, three and a half times less than that of the EU-27 (501.1 million, in 2010). Russia’s population density was 8.3 inhabitants per km2 (EU-27: 116). Both the EU-27’s and Russia’s population are ageing. Russian life expectancy is considerably below that of the EU.
However, the activity rate is higher in Russia, especially among women. The unemployment rates, including youth unemployment, are below those registered in the EU-27. In Russia, a large share of the household budget is spent on food and non-alcoholic beverages (30.5 %) while housing takes a low share (8.7 %). The opposite situation prevails in the EU.
Goods trade: energy products represent three quarters of the value of all imports
Russia is an important trade partner for the EU, and vice versa. The main EU imports from Russia are energy products, the value of which fluctuate with world energy prices.
The total trade volume (sum of the value of imports and exports) amounted to EUR 246 billion in 2010, a 185 % increase compared with 2000.
The EU-27 trade balance has been in deficit with Russia during the last decade; in 2008 it amounted to EUR 73 billion. This deficit decreased to EUR 52 billion in the crisis year 2009, with lower world energy prices; 2010, however, showed a similar deficit (EUR 74 billion) to 2008.
EU-27 exports to Russia have generally been increasing since the beginning of the century, except for 2009 when a 38% decrease compared to 2008 was registered. However, the value of EU-27 exports in 2010 again show a noticeable increase (+31 % between 2009 and 2010).
In 2010 ‘Mineral fuels’ accounted for 75 % of the total value of EU-27 imports from Russia (EUR 120 billion). Among ‘Mineral fuels’, petroleum and petroleum products take the lion’s share (85 %), while gas was responsible for 11 %. All other goods categories record shares of under 10 %, the largest of which is ‘Other manufactured goods’ (9 %).
EU-27 exports to Russia are far more diversified, albeit dominated by ‘Machinery and transport equipment’ with a share of 45 % (‘Road vehicles’ alone were responsible for one quarter of this category).
Other important categories are ‘Chemicals’ and ‘Other manufactured goods’ with 18 % and 24 % respectively. ‘Food and live animals’ have a fairly large share (8 %); with ‘Vegetables and fruits’ as well as ‘Meat and meat preparations’ being the most important.
The dominance of energy products in EU-27 imports is also reflected in the 10 most imported products (according to the SITC 2-digit classification – see Data sources and availability). ‘Petroleum’ dominates by a very large margin, (63 % of the total value of all imports in 2010), followed by ‘Gas’ (9 %). If the item ‘Coal, coke and briquettes’ (2 %) is added, energy products represent 74 % of the total value of 2010 imports. Furthermore, the EU-27 imported 693 million EUR worth of electricity from Russia (12th rank, not shown).
Among the non-energy imports, while ‘Nonferrous metals’ and ‘Iron and steel’ recorded shares of 4 % and 3 % respectively, all other product categories had shares of 2 % or lower.
Looking at the top 10 products exported to Russia by the EU-27 the more diverse product pattern becomes obvious, although machinery and technical equipment dominate. ‘Road vehicles’ make up the largest share (11 %), but by a relatively small margin. ‘General industrial machinery’ and ‘Electrical machinery’ registered shares of 8 % and 6 %, respectively.
The EU-27 is a major world trader for ‘Medicinal and pharmaceutical products’; therefore it is no surprise to see the relatively high share of this item (7 %) included in exports to Russia. In 2010 Russia was the 3rd largest recipient for this product category (data not shown).
Energy: the main asset of Russia for trade and economic development
The energy sector is of prime importance for Russia, not only with regard to trade with the EU. Russia’s self-sufficiency in energy and its export capacity puts the country in a good position for economic growth and development.
Figure 5 outlines the development of primary energy production in Russia. Overall, production gradually increased up to the year 2008 (+32 % between 1995 and 2008). Between 2008 and 2009, in the wake of the financial and economic crisis, primary production dropped. Several commodities were concerned, with the noticeable exception of crude oil, which registered a slight increase (+1.4 %, from 487 million toe to 493 million toe) during this period. Since the turn of the century, the production of crude oil has been increasing at a rapid pace, the main reasons being the application of modern extraction technologies and increasing world energy prices while the devaluation of the Russian rouble increased the competitive advantage of oil.
The ‘other’ primary energy category (essentially regrouping nuclear, hydro, solar, wind, geothermal and biomass) shows a similar, yet less regular increase, but at a far lower level in absolute terms (107.4 million toe, or 9 % of total primary energy production in 2009).
Figure 6 displays the shares of the individual commodities in total primary energy production of Russia. The overall increase in production can mainly be attributed to a larger crude oil production, especially between 2000 and 2005 (+45 %). In 2009, the production of natural gas amounted to 470 million toe, a share of 39 % of the total. In 2008, the production volume was still 535 million toe (corresponding to a share of 42 %).
Russia is increasingly recognising the need to move towards more efficient energy use including the development and use of green technology. In 2009, industry accounted for 48 % of the total final energy consumption, roughly the same share as in previous years. As a contrast, in the EU-27, the equivalent share of energy use for industry amounted to 24 % in 2009. On the other hand, ‘Transport’ was responsible for 33 % of total final energy consumption in EU-27, against 12 % in Russia. The shares for ‘Services’ and ‘Households’ were broadly comparable.
Russia has been a reliable supplier of energy to the EU for many years. Likewise, the EU continues to be the dominant, but not the only market for Russian energy exports. Taking into account all energy products, Russia has gradually increased its net energy exports (exports minus imports). Whereas net exports grew only slightly during the second half of the 1990s, a considerable acceleration was observed after the turn of the century (see Figure 9). A peak was reached in 2007, when net exports amounted to 559 million toe. Between 2007 and 2008, worldwide net exports dropped by 2.2 % to 547 million toe, a level similar to that recorded in 2009 (549 million toe).
Looking at the indexed development of EU-27 energy imports (see Figure 10), ‘Solid fuels' in particular stand out.
Although far less important in absolute terms (compared to oil and gas), the relative growth of solid fuels imports from Russia is considerable: between 1995 and 2009, EU-27 imports grew fivefold, from 10.7 million tonnes to 55.2 million tonnes in 2009, the largest year-on-year growth rates being registered between 2003 and 2006. However, solid fuels from Russia are only imported by a few Member States (see Table 6).
According to the International Energy Agency, Russia surpassed Saudi Arabia in terms of crude oil production in 2010 and is now the first producer worldwide (Russia: 502 million tonnes; Saudi Arabia: 471 million tonnes). Table 4 illustrates that in 2009 the EU-27 imported around 173 million tonnes of crude oil from Russia. In 2006, imports peaked at 188 million tonnes.
In 2009, Germany and Poland were the main destination countries for this crude oil, with a share of 20 % and 11 % respectively. In the EU-27 total, the Netherlands and Italy were both just under a 10 % share.
Russia has identified the natural gas sector as being of strategic importance. The main export markets of Russian gas are the EU and the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Russian gas arrives in the EU via pipelines transiting through the Ukraine, Belarus, and, more recently, through the Baltic Sea to Germany.
Table 5 shows that in 2009, close to 30 % of the total amount of Russian natural gas exported to the EU was destined for Germany. The second largest EU customer was Italy, with a share of 17 %. The other countries had shares in the single-digit range. Six EU Member States did not import any Russian natural gas (n.b. Cyprus and Malta do not currently use natural gas). The situation of the Netherlands is notable as, for a long time, this country was self-sufficient in natural gas, but started to import Russian natural gas from 2005 onwards. The growth in EU-27 imports of solid fuels mentioned previously is further detailed in Table 6.
Imports reached a high in 2008 at 59 million tonnes. In 2009, 55 million tonnes were imported (-6.7 %). Almost all solid fuels imports concern hard coal (99.9%). Only a very small proportion in 2009 consisted of lignite (47 thousand tonnes, imported in equal shares by Slovenia and Estonia).
Russian hard coal is mainly imported by the United Kingdom (34 % of all EU-27 imports), Germany (17 %) and Poland (13 %), countries in which domestic coal mining has gradually ceased, be it due to a depletion of reserves or due to the fact that mining is economically no longer viable.
Environment: CO2 emissions reduction with the collapse of the Soviet Union
Russia’s vast mineral and energy wealth does not come without a price for the environment. Water pollution is a serious concern, as well as air pollution, especially in the coal mining and metallurgical centres. In many urban areas, national pollution limits are exceeded. Improvements achieved in the industrial sector are often offset by increased car ownership and use.
Russia produces a significant proportion of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and it is hence an important country in international climate negotiations. The decision by Russia to ratify the Kyoto protocol at the end of 2004 was considered an important step forward by the international community. At the end of 2005, an EU-Russia Environmental Dialogue was launched, determining environmental priorities (see Data sources and availability).
Figure 11 shows the emissions of the main greenhouse gas component, carbon dioxide, by Russia and the EU-27 between 1990 and 2009, as reported to the UNFCCC (see Data sources and availability). Russia’s CO2 emissions from fuel combustion are generally less than half that of the EU-27. The substantial decrease of Russian CO2 emissions between 1990 and 1995 (-37%) can mainly be attributed to the economic downturn, leading to considerable drops in energy demand and production output. The replacement of old, inefficient manufacturing and other infrastructure has stabilised emission levels in the time that followed, despite increased economic activity.
From 2005, CO2 emissions from fuel combustion in the EU-27 have decreased at a moderate pace.
Figures for 2009 are further detailed in Table 7. The shares of the individual sectors are of particular interest: while CO2 emissions from fuel combustion for electricity and heat production amounted to 39.7 % in the EU-27, the share was 63.6 % for Russia. This high share is explained by the high reliance on fossil fuels: according to the IEA, 48 % of the electricity and heat production was ‘gas fired’, another 19 % by coal ‘fired power’ plants (data not shown). The Russian government approved a number of policy guidelines at the beginning of 2009, aimed at improving the efficiency of the power industry and the development of electricity generation from renewable sources (target: 4.5 % in 2020).
Another category for which a substantial difference is noted is transport, where the EU’s share (26.1 %) was substantially higher than for Russia (14.4 %), essentially due to a very intense use of road transport.
The EU is tackling this problem in various ways, for instance by reducing CO2 emissions for new cars, shifting from road to more sustainable transport modes, etc.
A different picture is obtained when looking at the per capita CO2 emissions. Russia’s per capita emissions are consistently higher than those of the EU-27. However, the 37% decrease in Russian emissions between 1990 and 2009 were essentially achieved in the first half of the 1990s.
In 2008, per capita emissions in Russia amounted to 10.1 tonnes, while in 2009 the lower production output due to the economic crisis saw this fall to 9.6 tonnes. In the EU-27, emissions from fuel combustion decreased from 7.8 tonnes to 7.2 tonnes between 2008 and 2009.
Forests and other wooded land cover more than 40 % of the EU’s land area with forests alone accounting for 37.5% of the cover.
The equivalent share for Russia is 49 %. The country’s forests represent 20.1 % of the world’s total.
When looking at the annual average change, a small increase can be observed for the EU-27, while the land area covered by forests in Russia has not changed.
In terms of forest ownership, the main difference resides in the fact that Russian forests are practically entirely publicly owned, while public ownership of EU forest ranges from 2 % in Portugal to 89 % in Bulgaria (data not shown).
The density of the growing stock is quite different: 153 m3 per ha for the EU-27 against 101 m3 per ha for Russia.
At 76 % the proportion of coniferous trees is substantially higher in Russia (EU-27 62 %).
Data sources and availability
This publication was prepared jointly by Eurostat and the Russian Federal State Statistics Service (ROSSTAT) in the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding signed by both institutions on 25 February 2002.
The sources for the statistics in this publication are Eurostat for the EU-27, and Russian Federal State Statistics Service, unless specified otherwise. Data on Foreign trade have been taken from Eurostat’s Comext database. It should be noted that Comext is updated regularly.
Further reading:
Energy efficiency and environment: a comprehensive and up-to-date report has been prepared by the International Energy Agency.
EU-Russia Environmental Dialogue:
The Environment Dialogue covers Climate Change, Biodiversity & Nature Protection, Water & Marine Issues, Forestry Law Enforcement, Cleaner Production & Pollution Control, Environmental Impact Assessment/Convergence of Environmental Policies. Expert EU-Russia Subgroups have been established in each of these areas
UNFCCC: certain data have been obtained from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The UNFCCC secretariat supports all institutions involved in the international climate change negotiations. Russia reports to the UNFCCC.
Table 1:
Selected basic indicators Data for EU-27 come from a number of sources,for which the table codes/links to Eurostat’s reference database are given below:
Population, population growth and density (demo_pjan)
Life expectancy (demo_mlexpec)
Infant mortality (demo_minfind)
Unemployment rates (lfsq_urgan)
Government expenditure (gov_a_exp)
Methodology for external trade statistics: In the methodology applied for statistics on the trading of goods, extra-EU trade (trade between Member States and non-member countries) statistics do not record exchanges involving goods in transit, placed in a customs warehouse or given temporary admission (for trade fairs, temporary exhibitions, tests, etc.). This is known as "special trade". So the partner will be the country of final destination of the goods.
SITC classification: Information on commodities exported and imported are presented according to the SITC classification (Standard International Trade Classification) at a more general level (1-digit – Figures 3 and 4) and a more detailed level (2-digits – Table 2 and 3). A full description is available from Eurostat’s classification server RAMON.
In this publication: 1 billion = 1 000 000 000
Context
This publication was prepared jointly by Eurostat and the Russian Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat), within the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding signed by both institutions on 25 February 2002.
See also
- Africa-EU - key statistical indicators
- Chile-EU - statistical indicators and trade figures
- Latin America-EU - economic indicators, trade and investment
Further Eurostat information
Publications
- EU-27 and Russia: basic statistical indicators and selected trade figures, 2000–2010 Statistics in focus 69/2011
Main tables
- International trade data (t_ext)
- International trade long-term indicators (t_ext_lti)
- International trade short-term indicators (t_ext_sti)
Database
- International trade data (ext)
- International trade long-term indicators (ext_lti)
- International trade short-term indicators (ext_sti)
- International trade detailed data (detail)
- Traditional external trade database access (ComExt)
Dedicated section
External links
- European Commission - DG Environment - Terms of reference signed on 10 October 2006 for Dialogue on the environment
- International Energy Agency - Development of Energy Efficiency Indicators in Russia
- Russian Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat)
- UNFCCC Web site