THE VOLUME OF CIS COUNTRIES' MUTUAL TRADE GREW BY ONE-FOURTH








MOSCOW, MARCH 2, 2001, /FROM A RIA NOVOSTI CORRESPONDENT/ --The volume of mutual trade between the CIS countries grew last year by more than 25 percent. This replenished the budgets of the CIS countries by more than two billion US dollars, reported a spokesman for the CIS executive committee. The community incorporates 12 republics of the former USSR.


	According to experts every percent of the growth of mutual trade turnover in the CIS countries gives now 80 million dollars to the budgets of its participants. If a free trade zone existed in the CIS countries (the creation of its basic legal field is going on now) the increment of mutual trade and proceeds from it would be higher.


	According to the committee's data, the volume of foreign trade in the CIS countries with a population of 283 million people is 33.4 percent less than in the CEFTA (Central European Free Trade Agreement) organisation which unites seven former European socialist countries with a population of 97 million people.