OREANDA-NEWS There are fluctuations in trade between Russia and China in 2024, at which its volume may increase or decrease in some months, said Liu Xu, Deputy director of the Institute of Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia at the People's University of China. The expert, whose assessment is given by TASS, called this situation negative.

According to him, in general, the growth trend has remained, although it has become less noticeable, so the goal of bringing the volume of trade between the countries to $ 250 billion this year, which was previously mentioned by Chinese President Xi Jinping, is "still achievable."

"In general, the process of development of Chinese-Russian trade and economic relations in the first half of the year was characterized by stability," Liu Xu summed up.

The trade turnover between the two countries increased by more than a quarter in the previous two years — by 29.3 percent (to $190 billion) in 2022 and by 26.3 percent (to $240 billion) in 2023. At the same time, exports from China to Russia increased by 46.9 percent last year and amounted to almost 110.97 billion dollars.

In July 2024, Russian exporters complained that, amid the expansion of US sanctions, trade with China had turned into a gamble, as transactions were increasingly frozen or delayed. According to Kommersant, businesses face refunds in almost 80 percent of cases.