The Effect of Sanctions on Finnish Exports to Russia

Berg-Andersson BirgittaKotilainen Markku

Abstract

Finland’s merchandise exports to Russia have decreased by 44 per cent between 2012 and 2015. Major part of this is due to the collapse of the oil prices and due to the related depreciation of the Russian Rouble. Both have weakened the purchasing power of Russian enterprises and households, especially with respect to foreign goods and services. The sanctions set due to the Ukrainian crisis have strengthened this decline. The sanctions set by the EU towards Russia have had a rather small effect on Finnish exports to Russia. This is already due to the fact that the share of the sanctioned product groups was small before the crisis, just about a half of a per cent. The counter sanctions set by Russia towards food exports of the EU countries have in turn had a much greater negative effect. The share of the sanctioned product groups was about 5 per cent of Finnish goods exports to Russia. These sanctions have had a substantial negative effect on the exports and profitability of the dairy and meat industries as well as of agriculture.

Publication info

Series
ETLA Muistio - ETLA Brief 45
Date
14.04.2016
ISSN
2323-2463
Pages
5
Language
Finnish