Business news

MINSK, 2 November (BelTA) – The World Bank expects the Belarusian economy to grow by 3.4% in 2018, BelTA learned from the World Bank’s latest survey of the Belarusian economy.

According to the source, the steady revival of the Belarusian economy, which began in 2017, continued into 2018. However, further structural changes are necessary in order to bolster the competitive ability on foreign markets.

The World Bank expects that the pace of the Belarusian economy growth may slow down to 2-2.5% in the future because the current restoration relies on cyclic factors.

World Bank experts believe that a number of foreign and domestic factors represent risks for Belarusian economy development in the medium term. The size of the state debt is the main challenge in efforts to secure stable and sustainable development. The state of affairs in the Belarusian economy will depend greatly on external demand on the part of Russia and global prices for raw materials. Among domestic risks the experts mentioned slower pace of reform in the real sector and the resumption of the policy meant to support domestic demand. The risks can be minimized by adopting systemic measures such as the establishment of an effective system to regulate bad loans to reduce the level of troubled assets in the entire economy.

The key task is to convert the current cyclic restoration of the economy into structural steady growth. Long-term growth also depends on the effective distribution of resources, the simplicity of doing business, and the availability of investment incentives.