DUSHANBE (Avesta news agency) — The foreign trade turnover of Tajikistan has amounted to %2.767 bln for the first eight months of this year, which is 19% or $642.3 mln less than in the same period of last year, Tajikistan’s Agency for Statistics said Wednesday. The trade balance has been negative and amounted to $1.539 bln in January-August 2015.

Exports of goods have amounted to $614.3 mln for the mentioned period, that is 1.2% more than in the same period last. Imports of goods into the country have amounted to $2.153 bln, 23.2%less than in January-August of last year.

For the last eight months of this year, the major trade partners of Tajikistan were: Russia ($730 mln), Kazakhstan (453 mln) and China ($427 mln).

The current slump in commodity prices has caught many commodity exporters by surprise because for years the demand for their products had surged, thanks to the rapid economic growth of China. As China has rapidly industrialized, urbanized, and built new infrastructure, its demand for building materials such as aluminium, copper, and steel, as well as for energy, has surged. Tajikistan’s main exports are raw aluminium, which accounts for 59% of its total exports, and raw cotton, at 12%. The price of aluminium has fallen 19% over the past 12 months amid fears of oversupply and shrinking demand. A similar heavy reliance on commodities exports characterizes all the countries of the former Soviet Union.