MOSCOW, August 25 (RIA Novosti) – Germany’s exports to Russia may shrink by 25 percent this year, the union of leading associations representing German businesses said in a statement Monday.
“It is possible that by the end of the year our exports to Russia will decline by 20-25 percent. It will affect some 50,000 workplaces in Germany,” Eckhard Cordes, the chairman of Germany’s Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations, was quoted as saying in the statement.
Germany’s Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations is an influential organization that represents the interests of German companies doing business in the former Soviet Union countries and in Eastern Europe.
According to the Russian Ministry of Economic Development, who is referring to the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, German exports to Russia amounted to 36.1 billion euros [$47.7 billion], down on 5.2 percent, in 2013. At the same time, Russia's share in the export of Germany was 3.3 percent against 3.5 percent in 2012.
