Business news

31 Oct 2022

PM: Belarus’ foreign trade surplus has hit $3.5bn, which is encouraging

An archive photo

MINSK, 31 October (BelTA) – The government of Belarus is satisfied with the export performance. The foreign trade surplus has reached $3.5 billion, and next month this figure may hit $4 billion, Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko told reporters after delivering a report to Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, BelTA has learned.

The head of government told Aleksandr Lukashenko that the export has been on the rise since April. “In August, the export was better than a year ago in terms of money,” he specified. In March almost half of Belarusian exports was under real threat, there were difficulties with transportation, settlements, and so on.

Roman Golovchenko also briefed the president on the situation in the main sectors of the domestic economy: “The situation is absolutely manageable, sometimes even encouraging.”

For example, the government is very pleased with the export performance, the prime minister said answering journalists’ questions. “This was one of the main concerns at the time when we faced the sanctions,” he said. “Today we can say that there are no problems with Belarusian exports. Moreover, we are pleased with the figures, especially the foreign trade surplus that now stands at $3.5 billion. I think that next month we will reach $4 billion. This is a net inflow of foreign currency. Consequently, there is no pressure on the exchange rate, on gold and foreign exchange reserves, on financial stability. This is a net revenue,” the premier added.

Speaking about the meeting with the president, Roman Golovchenko drew attention to the fact that the head of state was interested not so much in volume indicators as in performance indicators, that is, financial performance. According to the prime minister, the performance is not bad: “The aggregate profitability in the economy is about 9%, this is a good figure. The net profit of the economy and enterprises is growing. By now it has risen by 10% over last year that was quite successful for us. The Belarusian ruble is stable, moreover, it has even strengthened against freely convertible currencies. It is important that this is not some kind of pass-through effect or accounting effect, but real money that was additionally earned by the economy.”

In addition to that, the debt burden on enterprises is decreasing. “In other words, enterprises have enough funds to quickly pay off their debts on loans,” the head of government explained.

However, positive trends go along with some problems that worry the government. One of them is the growth of overdue external receivables. “To a greater extent, it is due to the fact that money is not coming in as quickly and easily as we would like. However, this problem is under control. It does not have any depressing or destabilizing effect on the economy. These problems are not widespread. I am sure we will solve them,” the prime minister said.

The participants of the meeting hosted by the head of state also touched upon the situation in key sectors of the economy: petrochemical industry, oil refining, woodworking, and mineral fertilizers. “I reported on the progress to fulfill individual instructions given by the head of state regarding a whole range of issues, including defense and defense industry,” Roman Golovchenko added.



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