OREANDA-NEWS Cross-border e-commerce in April decreased by 35% compared to the same period last year, the Ministry of Economic Development said, according to Gazeta.ru.

As the ruble exchange rate was fluctuating and there were problems with paying for goods because of sanctions, the international online commerce has gone down. However, now the decline of online commerce has slowed down, the agency noted.

The Ministry added that the budget was not affected by the reduction of trade, as customs payments were made only if the duty-free threshold was exceeded. Larger companies, whose supply chain was disrupted, were mostly affected.

However, representatives of business indicated that their turnover of cross-border online commerce in April decreased by 51%. In some categories the decrease exceeded 90%. For example, in the category "clothes and shoes" reduction was 92%. Least of all it affected "digital and home appliances," where the reduction was only 19%.

In late March, RBC, citing data from FinExpertiza, an international audit and consulting network, reported that Russia's trade turnover with non-sanctioned countries in 2021 reached $359.8 billion, or about 45.8% of all foreign trade.