Business news

Belarus’ merchandise export up by 15.3% to $33.7bn in 2018

MINSK, 20 February (BelTA) – In 2018 Belarus’ merchandise export rose by 15.3% over 2017 to reach $33.7 billion, Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei said at the board meeting of the ministry, BelTA has learned.

“We performed exceptionally well in 2017 and managed to maintain momentum throughout 2018 beating the target set by the head of state,” he said.

Vladimir Makei welcomed positive trends in trade: in money terms the growth made up $4.5 billion. Almost 60% of the growth was generated by products not related to crude oil, petroleum products and fertilizers, which shows that the structure of merchandise export has been improving.

“Physical volumes of exports of non-energy commodities increased by 7% while prices rose by 5.8%. Domestic manufacturers stepped up exports to all regions of the world. We are approaching the current five-year target, namely to secure equal distribution of exports across three major markets. The share of the EAEU decreased to 41.2% while that of the EU increased to 30.2% and that of other countries to 28.6%. However, these results should not make anybody complacent,” Vladimir Makei said.

In 2018, 42 diplomatic missions abroad did well in export promotion while 15 underperformed. Some industries and regions failed to meet the merchandise export targets.

Belarus has the largest deficits in trade with Russia, China and Turkey. The Belarusian ambassadors to these countries will lay out suggestions on ways to rectify the situation.

print version

make home page

add to bookmarks