The volume of trade turnover between Russia and African countries in the eight months of 2023 increased by 43.5% compared to the same period of the previous year and amounted to $15.5 billion, the Russian media outlet reported, citing the Ministry of Economic Development's data prepared for one of the events in the nation's parliament.
“Africa has a rich resource base, but there are no production technologies; we need our technologies for developing deposits and extracting minerals. High rates of urbanization make our experience in the construction of housing, roads and railways, ports, oil and gas pipelines, and utility networks in demand,” Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov is quoted as saying.
The Ministry of Economic Development reportedly added that the top five African countries in terms of trade turnover with Russia for January-August 2023 looks like this:
Egypt;
Algeria;
Morocco;
Tunisia;
Libya.
According to the International Monetary Fund, the total share of these countries in global GDP was about 1.8% for 2022 (the leader is Egypt with 1%). The most volatile economy is Libyan: its GDP in 2022, according to IMF estimates, collapsed by 12.8%, and in 2023 should recover by 17.5%.
According to the report, citing the acting head of the Russian Federal Customs Service, in the first months of this year, Africa’s share in total Russian trade turnover increased to 3.7% (from 2.3% in 2022).
By 2030, Russia can increase trade with Africa at least twice as much as the 2022 level, Reshetnikov assured.
“Africa now has one and a half billion people, by 2030 it will be 1.7 billion people, and demographers’ forecast by 2100 is 3 billion people. This is the largest market, and a market that is growing,” he reflected.
According to the Bank of Russia, in July 2023, 12.7% of Russian exports to Africa were in rubles, and almost 79% in “other currencies,” which mainly includes the Chinese yuan. At the same time, the share of “other currencies” jumped from 39% in June 2023.
In 2022, Egypt's supplies to Russia mainly consisted of fruits, the Egyptian statistical service reported. Egypt's imports from Russia were dominated by grain and timber. Algeria and Libya are heavily dependent on Russian wheat imports, local media reported.