Russian economy nightmare as Putin takes £5.5bn trade hit

New figures have revealed a problem for Putin (Image: Getty)

Vladimir Putin is facing an economic nightmare as Russia's positive balance of payments - the total income of money from abroad against total outflows - between January and April took a 31.7% hit, new figures have revealed. The country's central bank said the figure was £15.7billion, £7.4billion less than last year's £23.1billion. This decrease is due to a decrease in the trade balance overall, and an "expansion of the total deficit in primary and secondary income", officials say.

Meanwhile, Russia's trade balance surplus - referring specifically to trade in goods and services - during the same period this year decreased by 15.9% to £29.3billion compared to £34.8billion billion for the same period in 2024, the Russian news service Interfax adds. But it comes after the Bank of Russia declared that the country's foreign trade surplus gained £1.8billion between January and February, reaching £13.8billion, compared to £11.9billion a year earlier.

The Bank of Russia has released new stats (Image: Getty)

Figures suggested that the surplus of the foreign trade in goods increased by £3.1billion as of the end of February 2025 due to of export growth to £23.3 billion from £21.8billion in January.

In addition, the services balance deficit —the difference between the value of services exported and the value of services imported—dropped by £ 822 million to £ 1.2 billion.

This was driven by smaller expenses of Russians in foreign trips, bankers said.

TASS reported this morning that, at the beginning of the main trading session on the Moscow Exchange, the MOEX index fell by 0.76% to 2,860.78 points.

The Russian news service added that the RTS index also fell by 0.76% to 1,120.71 points, according to trading platform data as of 10 am Moscow time.

This was after the MOEX responded with a "slight increase" yesterday evening to US President Donald Trump's statements about his telephone conversation with President Putin.

Earlier this morning, President Trump hinted that he would not expand US economic sanctions on Russia as he seeks a peace deal over the war in Ukraine.

He told journalists: "I think there is a chance to do something, and if you do that [expand sanctions] you can make things much worse."

European leaders, however, have resolved to roll out further measures.