The essentials:
The Bank of Russia published the estimate of the balance of payments of the Russian Federation for August 2025 and revised the estimate for January – July 2025 due to the receipt of additional reporting data as of 15 October, 2025.
The current account deficit in August 2025 amounted to $0.9 billion against a surplus of $1.2 billion in July 2025. This was primarily driven by the decline in the trade balance surplus due to the reduction in exports after their significant increase in July. In July-August the average value of exports remained close to the monthly average for the current year.
In January-August 2025 the current account surplus reduced to $22.2 billion from $42.8 billion in the corresponding period of 2024 due to a weaker trade balance and a growth in the deficit in the balance on services.
Key Aggregates | Q2 2025 | July 2025 (estimate) | August 2025 (estimate) | January-August 2025 (estimate) | For reference: August 2024 | For reference: January-August 2024 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Current account | 4.0 | 1.2 | -0.9 | 22.2 | 2.2 | 42.8 |
Trade balance | 25.1 | 12.7 | 7.5 | 75.5 | 8.7 | 88.7 |
Balance on services | -12.6 | -5.6 | -6.0 | -31.9 | -4.6 | -24.9 |
Balance on primary and secondary income | -8.4 | -5.9 | -2.4 | -21.5 | -1.8 | -21.0 |
Net acquisition of financial assets, excluding reserve assets | 4.9 | 5.0 | -0.3 | 28.6 | -1.3 | 40.6 |
Net incurrence of liabilities | 0.5 | 2.0 | -2.6 | 3.2 | -7.8 | -3.9 |
Reserve assets | -3.4 | -1.3 | -2.2 | -12.8 | -2.7 | -11.5 |
Key Aggregates in August 2025:
- the trade balance surplus amounted to $7.5 billion, decreasing by $5.2 billion relative to the updated value of July 2025. The main cause was the decline in exports;
- the deficit in the balance on services increased to $6.0 billion as a result of the reduction in exports of services, including other services;
- the total deficit in primary and secondary income declined to $2.4 billion ($5.9 billion a month earlier) due to the decrease in income payable after the seasonal growth of dividends accrued to non-residents in July;
- external assets (excluding reserve assets) remained virtually unchanged (-$0.3 billion) against the $5.0 billion growth a month earlier;
- external liabilities dropped by $2.6 billion (rose by $2.0 billion in July 2025) primarily owing to the decrease of residents’ indebtedness on outstanding settlements;
- reserve assets declined by $2.2 billion (by $1.3 billion in July 2025).
Key Aggregates in January-August 2025:
- the trade balance surplus decreased to $75.5 billion from $88.7 billion in January-August 2024 mainly as a result of reduced mineral product exports, partially offset by increasing supplies of non-energy goods. Imports remained virtially unchanged;
- the deficit in the balance on services rose to $31.9 billion from $24.9 billion in January-August 2024 owing to the significant increase in imports of services, both in travel and other services, including construction services. Slight exports growth was due to the rise in the amount of other services provided to non-residents;
- the deficit in primary and secondary income didn’t change significantly and amounted to $21.5 billion ($21.0 billion a year earlier): the increase in the dollar equivalent of Russians’ personal transfers to foreign households was largely offset by the reduction of investment income accrued to non-residents;
- the slowdown in the growth of external assets (excluding reserve assets) to $28.6 billion from $40.6 billion a year earlier was among other things caused by the decline of non-residents’ indebtedness on outstanding settlements;
- external liabilities grew by $3.2 billion (dropped by $3.9 billion in January-August 2024). The main reason was the transition of direct investment liabilities to positive values both due to the reduced intensity of foreign investors’ withdrawal from equity and debt instruments of Russian companies and the attraction of loans by residents from related foreign entities;
- reserve assets decreased by $12.8 billion (by $11.5 billion a year earlier).