Strengthened trade balance boosts current account surplus

As evidenced by the Bank of Russia's preliminary estimate, the current account surplus of the Russian balance of payments totalled $22.8 billion in 2017 Q1, compared with $12.9 billion in 2016.

Increase in the trade balance by a factor of 1.5 amid growing global prices of key Russian export commodities exerted a positive influence on the current account dynamics. However, negative drag from other current account components slightly picked up.

The estimated net private capital outflow equalled $15.4 and was predominantly the result of the banking sector's operations to build up their foreign assets. In contrast, other sectors acted as net importers of capital in Q1 by increasing their external liabilities.