Starting October 1st, Russia will implement a new export tariff policy, with fertilizer tariffs potentially reaching up to 10%.

On the 21st, the Russian government website announced that the government has issued relevant documents, deciding to impose flexible export tariffs on various goods from October 1, 2023, to the end of 2024, with tariff rates linked to the ruble exchange rate.

The Russian government pointed out that, depending on the level of the ruble exchange rate, the export tariff rates for the vast majority of goods involved in this measure are between 4% and 7%. If the Central Bank of Russia's ruble exchange rate is not higher than 1 US dollar to 80 rubles, the export tariffs on some goods will be zero.

According to the documents issued by the Russian government, when the exchange rate of 1 US dollar to ruble is between 80 (inclusive) and 85, the tariff rate for goods listed, excluding fertilizers, is 4%; between 85 (inclusive) and 90, the rate is 4.5%; between 90 (inclusive) and 95, the rate is 5.5%, and not less than 95, the rate is 7%.

The Russian government stated that the above standards apply to all types of export goods on the list except fertilizers. The export tariff rate for fertilizers is adjusted according to fluctuations in the ruble exchange rate, reaching up to 10%.

In addition, this measure does not apply to the export of goods such as oil, natural gas, grain, and wood.

The Russian government stated that this measure is temporary, aiming to ensure a reasonable balance between commodity exports and domestic consumption, and to prevent unreasonable price increases in the domestic market in Russia.

On September 15th, the Central Bank of Russia announced an increase in the benchmark interest rate by 100 basis points to 13%. In addition, the Central Bank of Russia also raised the inflation forecast for the whole year of 2023 from 5% to 6.5% to 6% to 7%. The Central Bank of Russia began tightening monetary policy in July of this year to cope with inflationary pressures.