Kyrgyzstan increases exports to EEU markets by 4.3 percent for year

Kyrgyzstan has managed to increase deliveries of products to the markets of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) in 2016 despite the decline in its trade turnover with members of the union in the same period. Vice Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Oleg Pankratov said in an interview with TASS.

«If we take the total figure, the drop in external trade with EEU countries was registered by the National Statistical Committee at the level of 18.6 percent (in 2016). But if you look at the structure of trade, it is evident that imports declined by 23.1 percent, while exports increased by 4.3 percent," he said.

According to Oleg Pankratov, despite all the external negative factors and the reduction in volume of trade within EEU, Kyrgyzstan has managed «not only to retain exports to these markets», but also «increased them.»

Oleg Pankratov said that the decline in imports became a positive thing for the «trade balance» of the republic. «Trade surplus, in its turn, directly affects the country’s GDP: the more positive it is, the larger is the GDP," he stressed.

Oleg Pankratov is sure that Kyrgyzstan, by joining the union, made the right choice, because there are no other regional economic blocs with «a higher degree of integration than EEU now.»

«When we speak about an alternative, we should look — what already exists on the market and what we are offered, but there are no other real proposals," Oleg Pankratov believes.