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Economy Ministry expects Belarus’ GDP to grow by 2.6% in H1 2021

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MINSK, 19 May (BelTA) – The Economy Ministry expects the GDP to grow by 2.6% in the first half of the year, BelTA learned from Belarusian First Deputy Economy Minister Yuri Chebotar.

The official said: “As for GDP projections, we expect a growth rate of 102.6% in the first half of the year.”

Speaking about the state of affairs in branches of the Belarusian economy, Yuri Chebotar said the pandemic continues having an effect. More than half of the economy demonstrates growth. Those industries are the production sector, wholesale trade, information and communications. “Quality growth is the most important fact. The stock in storage of the production sector is minimal and continues falling. The overdue external accounts receivable are falling and are at their lowest in the last seven years. According to our estimates, the production sector will continue driving economic growth in H1 2021,” he explained.

In his words, the first quarter of the year was characterized by emerging positive dynamics of restoration of agriculture and various kinds of consumer services – retail trade, transport, hospitality industry, public catering, healthcare, education, leisure and entertainment. “The branches are gaining pace. We expect them to recover up to last year’s level as a result of H1 2021. On the whole, we expect the sphere of services to get out of the negative zone,” Yuri Chebotar added.

The situation is complicated in the civil engineering industry at present. “We saw negative dynamics in January-April. We don’t expect civil engineering to get out of the red zone in H1 2021. Although we expect the trend to reverse in May,” he stated.

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