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Export growth seen as priority task for Belarusian government

MINSK, 22 February (BelTA) – Our main task is to ensure further growth of export, Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko said in an interview with the Lithuanian newspaper Vakaro Zinios, BelTA has learned.

“Last year, despite all economic difficulties, was a good one. GDP grew by 2.3%. We didn't go into lockdown, we didn't stop production. This helped us to ensure a strong export growth and a record high foreign trade surplus, primarily thanks to industry and services," said Roman Golovchenko. “We reversed the economic trends in the wake of the 2020 election when there was certain turbulence in the foreign exchange market and the deposit market. We reversed these processes. The exchange rate remained stable all this time, the outflow of deposits from banks stopped. Now there is a reverse trend - people have restarted bringing money to banks. This is the best indicator of the confidence in the government’s economic policy."

According to the prime minister, the government expects the growth across the key indicators this year too. "The task is ambitious as there are sanctions, the ongoing pandemic, inflationary pressure, the rise in costs of logistics and raw materials around the world. In general, this is quite turbulent situation. Nevertheless, we have a plan. We are working according to it. Our task is to ensure further growth of export. This is the main driver for this year,” Roman Golovchenko noted. “January was good in general: GDP rose by 2.7%, export continued expanding. We are doing everything to live up to our forecasts."

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