Russia's new car sales decline slows in July, Autostat says
Russia's car market collapsed in 2022 as foreign automakers left following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Car sales, a key gauge of economic activity, had been steadily recovering since late 2022, but the market entered a sharp decline this year due to high inflation, soaring interest rates and scrappage fees.
Car sales fell 11.4% year on year in July, Autostat data showed, an improvement on the 27.6% slump in June. From January to July, sales were down 23.9% compared to the year-ago period at 651,029 units.
Major Russian vehicle producers, including leading carmaker Avtovaz and truckmaker Kamaz, have blamed slowing sales on prohibitively high borrowing costs for consumers and producers, as well as short-sighted import policies.
The central bank slashed its key interest rate by 200 basis points to 18% in late July, a move that is already supporting the car sector.
Importers have a large stock of cars and are willing to get rid of them by offering discounts and better loan terms, Autostat Executive Director Sergei Udalov said on Tuesday.
This supply was met in July with demand from people withdrawing money from their accounts as the central bank has cut rates, he added.
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BBC News
3 hours ago
- BBC News
How Trump's 'secondary tariffs' on Russia could hit global economy
Despite being the world's most sanctioned country, Russia has continued to use its vast energy wealth to bankroll its war in President Donald Trump is hoping to change that. He has announced that sweeping new secondary tariffs will impact any country still trading with Russia if a ceasefire with Ukraine is not agreed by Friday 8 August. Secondary tariffs would see goods from any country that trades with Russia face a 100% tax when they are imported into the and gas are Russia's biggest exports, and Moscow's biggest customers include China, India and Turkey. "I used trade for a lot of things, but it's great for settling wars", said Trump last would not be the first time the Trump administration has imposed secondary tariffs, which are also in place to punish buyers of Venezuelan using them against Russia would have far bigger implications for the global remains the world's third biggest oil producer, behind only Saudi Arabia and the US itself. But its shipments have been falling this year, according to a Bloomberg analysis of ship-tracking data. Increased energy prices "The key channel by which secondary tariffs on buyers of Russian energy could impact the global economy would be through the level of energy prices," says Kieran Tompkins from the consultancy Capital the tariffs work, they will cut the flow of Russian oil and gas to global with less supply, prices could go up, just as they did when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. That led to a spike in inflation around the world. President Trump says he isn't worried because of record US oil Tompkins points out that, this time, there are also other reasons to suggest the impact on prices would not be as marked. He explains that "the current backdrop is one where OPEC+ [the group of major oil producing countries and its allies] have significant spare capacity to draw upon."Russia has devised a whole system for avoiding existing sanctions, which could be useful for helping its trading partners avoid the secondary tariffs threatened by example, its so-called "shadow fleet" - consisting of hundreds of tankers with obscure ownership - could be used to conceal the origin of exported Russian oil and gas."Sanctions maintenance is as big a task as the imposition of sanctions in the first place," US sanctions expert Richard Nephew of Columbia University says. "That's because the party that is being sanctioned takes steps to evade them." Pricier iPhones from India Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 India has been the second biggest buyer of Russian oil, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. "They're fuelling the war machine. And if they're going to do that, then I'm not going to be happy," President Trump told US outlet CNBC on Tuesday. If secondary sanctions take effect, US companies buying goods from India will have to pay a 100% import tax - or tariff - when those products reach US idea is that it makes these goods so expensive that US businesses will choose to buy them cheaper from elsewhere, resulting in lost revenue for India. That, in turn, is supposed to deter India from buying Russian oil. And if Russia is left unable to sell its oil elsewhere because other countries face the same predicament, it will have less cash to finance the war in way in which Americans could experience higher prices as a result of new secondary tariffs is in their purchase of mobile phones from calls Trump's tariff threat over Russian oil 'unjustified'US firm Apple is moving much of its iPhone production to India - in particular the manufacturing of handsets that it wants to sell in the US. If these products are subject to the new tariffs, prices could double for US consumers. That is because tariffs are paid by the companies that import goods - and those companies tend to pass most, if not all, of their cost increases on to their to the US from India are already facing a 25% tariff as part of President Trump's broader trade shake-up, and he told CNBC that number could be raised "very substantially". India's government has accused the US of double standards, pointing to Washington's own continued trade with vast majority of that trade is made up of US imports from India which amounted to just over $3bn (£2.2bn) last year - although that's just 10% of 2021 levels. That trade is dominated by US purchases of raw materials for nuclear energy and fertilizers. Russia is a major global supplier of both. Derailing trade talks with China China is buying the most Russian oil, and a decision by President Trump to impose secondary tariffs on Chinese goods would be much more challenging to because US imports from China are worth five times as much as those from India, and a lot more of those imports are consumer goods such as toys, clothes and tariffs aimed at Beijing would also risk upsetting a much broader renegotiation of trade between the world's two biggest economies that Trump has been pursuing since his first term in office."This type of over-escalation is unlikely to impress the Chinese," says trade expert Professor Simon Evenett of IMD Business explains that it would be "very difficult" to peel the Chinese away from the Russians without a good reason, given how closely Presidents Xi and Putin have worked together in recent top of that, the last time Trump tried using triple-figure tariffs against China, he found it did not work - as it almost cut off all trade between the two move like that could add to inflationary pressures in the US, which Trump has long pledged to could also cost huge amounts of manufacturing jobs in China, at a time when its economy is already struggling on several fronts. Further harm to US-EU commerce Analysis by the Finland-based Centre for Research and Clean Air shows that the EU and Turkey are also still amongst the biggest buyers of Russian 2022, the EU was the number-one export destination for Russia, although that has been vastly reduced since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Brussels recently agreed to buy a lot more energy from the US, but some imports from Russia remain. In June, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, acknowledged the problem, saying "Russia has repeatedly attempted to blackmail us by weaponizing its energy supplies" as she laid out plans to end imports by the end of US-EU trade relationship is the biggest in the world, and the pair have just negotiated new trade terms which will see a 15% tariff be applied on most EU exports to the in the EU criticised that deal, saying the tariffs would harm European exporters. Now they also fear that secondary sanctions on the EU could do even more harm. Adding 100% tariffs for buying Russian energy could significantly reduce the amount of goods sold by the EU to the US. However the biggest sellers include pharmaceuticals and machinery, which may be hard to source from elsewhere - meaning Americans have little choice but to pay more. Potential Russian recession Russia's own economy has so far proven remarkably resilient since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, growing 4.3% last Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov recently warned that the country was "on the verge" of recession after a period of "overheating". The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is forecasting growth of just 0.9% this the secondary sanctions are successful in reducing demand for exports, they will push Russia closer to exact impact of the war on Russia's economy is hard to know, because Moscow has prevented a large amount of economic data from being published since the full-scale invasion - including on oil and gas a third of Russian government spending is funded by oil and gas money, but exports have been falling. Meanwhile, Putin is directing a bigger share of spending towards defence than at any time since the Cold War. Defence spending is believed to have reached 6.3% of contrast, Ukraine has been spending a huge 26% of the value of its far-smaller economy on the war. The difference explains why its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has repeatedly asked for external help from his tariffs are intended to help Zelensky by cutting the amount of money flowing into Russia, and he hopes bring an end to the death, suffering and destruction in Ukraine.
Reuters
4 hours ago
- Reuters
Three years into war, US and Europe keep billions in trade with Russia
Aug 5 (Reuters) - Three years after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the United States and European Union still import billions of euros worth of Russian energy and commodities, ranging from liquefied natural gas to enriched uranium. India this week lashed out at what it called Western double standards, after facing renewed threats from U.S. President Donald Trump over its surging purchases of Russian crude oil. Here are the main commercial ties that the U.S., Europe, and India maintain with Russia, and their evolution over the last four years: Since the beginning of the war, trade between the EU and Russia has drastically contracted due to EU sanctions and import restrictions on some products. Imports from Russia fell by 86% from the first quarter of 2022 through the first quarter of this year, according to the latest data from Eurostat. Imports of goods from Russia in the first quarter of 2025 totaled 8.74 billion euros ($10.11 billion), down from 30.58 billion euros four years earlier. Since January 2022, the EU has imported 297 billion euros' worth of Russian goods. The EU, however, continues to purchase oil, nickel, natural gas, fertilizer, iron, and steel from Russia. Four years ago, Russia was the largest supplier of petroleum products to the EU, but the EU ban on maritime imports of Russian crude oil reduced its share to 2.01% in 2025 from 28.74% in 2021. Oil imports fell to 1.48 billion euros in the first quarter of 2025 from 14.06 billion euros four years ago. Russia's share in natural gas plummeted to 17% in the first quarter of 2025 from 48% in 2021's first quarter. Russia's share in non-EU iron and steel imports slumped to 7.71% in the first quarter of 2025 from 18.28% four years ago. As for fertilizers, a sector in which the European Parliament voted in May to impose prohibitive tariffs, Russia remained, as of the first quarter of 2025, the largest exporter to the European Union. Its share fell slightly from 28.15% to 25.62% in the last four years. In contrast to Europe, India's imports from Moscow surged to $65.7 billion in 2024 from $8.25 billion in 2021, data from the Indian Commerce Ministry website showed. Crude oil has been the biggest driver of the growth in India's imports from Russia, jumping to $52.2 billion in 2024 from $2.31 billion in 2021. India's imports of coal and coal-related products from Russia surged to $3.5 billion from $1.12 billion in 2021. India's fertilizer imports from Russia rose to $1.67 billion in 2024 from $483 million in 2021. U.S. imports, opens new tab from Russia fell to $2.50 billion in the first half of 2025 from $14.14 billion four years earlier, according to U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis data. Since January 2022, the U.S. has imported $24.51 billion of Russian goods. Last year, the U.S. imported around $1.27 billion of Russian fertilizers, up slightly from $1.14 billion in 2021. The U.S. imported enriched uranium and plutonium from Russia worth around $624 million in 2024, down from $646 million in 2021. Russia exported palladium to the United States for around $878 million in 2024, down from $1.59 billion in 2021. ($1 = 0.8641 euros)
Reuters
6 hours ago
- Reuters
Zelenskiy says he had 'productive' call with Trump ahead of ceasefire deadline
KYIV, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday that he had had a "productive" conversation with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump on ending the war, sanctions on Russia and the finalisation of a U.S.-Ukraine drone deal. "President Trump is fully informed about Russian strikes on Kyiv and other cities and communities," Zelenskiy wrote on X, referring to intensifying drone and missile attacks. Trump, who has signalled frustration with Vladimir Putin in recent weeks, has given the Russian president until August 8 to make peace in Ukraine or face tougher sanctions. A source in Washington said U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff would be meeting the Russian leadership in Moscow on Wednesday. Speaking in his nightly video address, Zelenskiy said Trump "knows the situation along the front line," which extends for 1,000 km (620 miles) through eastern and southern Ukraine. Ukraine, he said, had long supported U.S. proposals for an immediate ceasefire and had proposed a number of formats to implement a halt to the fighting. "We have spoken with and proposed to Russia quiet in the skies, no missile and drone attacks and specifically no attacks on civilian infrastructure or on the energy sector," he said. "All of this has been violated by the Russians and in a very cynical fashion." Trump has threatened to hit Russia with new sanctions and impose 100% tariffs on countries that buy its oil, although sources close to the Kremlin have told Reuters that Putin is unlikely to bow to the ultimatum. Zelenskiy said Ukraine was also ready to conclude a deal with the U.S. on the purchase of Ukrainian drones that would amount to "one of the strongest agreements". He had earlier said the deal was worth around $30 billion. Ukraine is increasingly seeking financing and investment from its foreign partners to bolster its burgeoning domestic arms industry. Zelenskiy said Kyiv's European partners had so far pledged to buy more than $1 billion in U.S. weapons for Ukraine as part of a new scheme.
