Russian-Uzbek trade up 9% to $6.7 bln in 2011

Trade turnover between Uzbekistan and Russia rose 8.9 percent in 2011 to $6.689 billion compared with 2010, the Uzbek statistics committee said on Tuesday. Russia accounted for 26.2 percent of Uzbekistan's overall trade turnover, according to the report. Uzbek exports to Russia grew six percent to $4.406 billion last year, while imports from Russia increased 14.8 percent to $2.283 billion compared with 2010.Energy exports from Uzbekistan to Russia fell to 32.8 percent of the total last year from 33.7 percent in 2010, while food products grew to 22.2 percent from 20.4 percent and machinery and equipment went up to 14.6 percent from 14.1 percent. Export of services edged down 0.2 percentage points to 9.5 percent and cotton exports fell to 3.5 percent from 3.7 percent.Last year Uzbekistan's core import items from Russia were machinery and equipment, accounting for 21.3 percent of overall trade turnover, a 2.9 percentage point increase, energy products accounted for 18.3 percent, up 0.7 percentage points, and food products amounted to 11.3 percent, a 0.8 percentage point increase. Import of ferrous and non-ferrous metals from Russia jumped to 14.6 percent from 13.8 percent and imports of chemical products rose to 6.8 percent from 6.3 percent.