According to official data, Italy lost around 12 billion euros due to the food embargo imposed by Russia. Experts at the Italian-Russian Chamber of Commerce estimated damage caused by the Russian sanctions at this figure.
Due to Russia's kontramarka “Italy today lost 11-12 billion euros of exports to Russia and 200 thousand jobs. This is impossible to adapt, because Italy needs new markets.” The Russian market “is the closest and most appropriate for the Italians," President of the Italian-Russian Chamber of Commerce Rosario Alessandrello said. These losses are significant for Italy, which reflects the serious intentions of Russia. However, one might wonder why not place a gas embargo, especially given that Russia sells cheap gas. Russia makes up a lion share of all gas exports to Europe, so such a ban seems a logical step. However, the gas ban could hurt Russia’s government, so it was decided to put embargo on food imports.
As for Italy, last year the country’s economy expanded at a confident pace of 0.9 percent beating analysts’ forecasts for a 0.6 percent advance. The economic growth rate is expected to accelerate to 1 percent this year and to 1.1 percent in 2018.
