Exports were $109.730 billion (an increase of 27.3 per cent). and imports $58.525 billion (a rise of 24.8 per cent).
In August of 2004, foreign trade was worth $24.3 billion, including $16.2 billion in exports and $8.1 billion in imports. Compared with August of 2003, the figures increased by 32.8 per cent, 35 per cent and 28.8 per cent, respectively.
At the end of September, 5.5 million people, or 7.4 per cent of the gainfully occupied population, were classified as unemployed (according to International Labour Organisation methods).
State employment service bodies registered 1.6 million people as jobless, including 358,700 in the Chechen Republic.
The gainfully occupied population reached 73.8 million people by the end of September, 2004, or about 50 per cent of the total population in the country.
The prevailing part of the occupied population is concentrated in large and medium-sized organisations. In August 2004, they employed 38.8 million people, or 57 per cent of all with jobs.
Real disposable cash incomes of the Russian population (income minus obligatory payments adjusted for consumer prices) rose 13 per cent in September 2004, compared with the appropriate period of 2003, and 9.8 per cent in January-September 2004.
In the third quarter of 2004, real disposable cash incomes of the population increased by 10.2 per cent year-on-year and 5.6 per cent quarter-on-quarter.
Compared with the appropriate periods, real implicit wages rose in September by 11.8 per cent, in the third quarter by 11.7 per cent, and in January-September by 13.3 per cent.
The average implicit wages in September 2004, according to preliminary figures, were 6,976 roubles (1 US dollar equals 29.12 roubles) and rose year-on-year 24.5 per cent.
In August 2004, the average implicit wages in the health, physical culture and social welfare sectors were 54 per cent relative to those in industry, in the fields of culture and art, 45 per cent, and in education, 43 per cent. In August 2003, these indices were 49 per cent, 43 per cent, and 39 per cent, respectively.
