That's a tough pill to swallow and Russia is quite literally laughing its way to the bank, as one can say. In July, Germany imported goods from Russia totalling a value of €2.9 billion. That amount is 10.2% higher than the value of imports seen in July 2021.
Of course, the main reason for the surge in imports value can be attributed to soaring energy costs with the German stats office noting that crude oil and natural gas imports totalled €1.4 billion (+1.6% y/y), coke and petroleum products totalled €0.5 billion (+72.5% y/y), and coal totalled €0.3 billion (more than double in value).
As for total trade volume, Germany did manage to reduce imports from Russia by 45.8%.
