EU exports to Ukraine increased 9.3% in Q4 2024
In the fourth quarter of 2024 compared with the previous quarter, European Union imports from Ukraine decreased by 1.8 per cent while EU exports to Ukraine increased by 9.3 per cent, EU statistics agency Eurostat said on February 26.
The largest increases in EU exports to Ukraine, in the fourth quarter of 2024, compared with the fourth quarter of 2022, were explosives and arms and ammunition, Eurostat said.
The EU trade surplus with Ukraine peaked in the fourth quarter of 2024 at 5.8 billion euro.
The share for Ukraine in extra-EU exports has been steadily increasing from 1.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2021 to 1.8 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Looking at the changes in Ukraine’s share in extra-EU imports, they were one per cent both in the first quarter of 2022 and in the fourth quarter of 2024.
By contrast, the share for Ukraine in extra-EU exports has been steadily increasing from one per cent in the first quarter of 2022 to 1.8 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Since the first quarter of 2021, with the exception of the first quarter of 2022, the EU has had a trade surplus with Ukraine.
Since the third quarter of 2022 there were deficits for food, drinks and tobacco and for raw materials.
However, the large surpluses for machinery and vehicles combined with surpluses in the other product groups were much larger, resulting in a substantial overall trade surplus, Eurostat said.
The EU adopted a regulation allowing for temporary full trade liberalisation and the suspension of trade defence measures on June 4 2022, resulting in a sharp increase in EU imports from Ukraine for several agricultural products.
Eurostat said that this caused distortions in markets for these products in countries neighbouring Ukraine, leading to the imposition of temporary restrictive measures on a series of Ukrainian foodstuff exports on May 2 2023. These measures ended on September 15 2023 while at the same time Ukraine was to put in place effective measures to control the export of these products.
Between 2023 and 2024, imports from Ukraine of rape or colza seeds, soya bean oil, maize, sunflower oil and iron and steel increased while the share for wood decreased.
(Photo: Julien Hoste/ freeimages.com)
