Business news

26 May 2021

PM: Belarusian economy grows contrary to Western projections

An archive photo

MINSK, 26 May (BelTA) – Contrary to projections of Western agencies the Belarusian economy is growing rather fast. Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko made the statement in his speech in the Oval Hall of the House of Government on 26 May, BelTA has learned.

Roman Golovchenko said: “The government has started implementing decisions of the 6th Belarusian People’s Congress, which approved the main provisions of the program on the country’s social and economic development. Contrary to projections of Western agencies, which promised stagnation and recession to us, the Belarusian economy has achieved quite a good pace.”

Roman Golovchenko mentioned the main results achieved in January-April. The growth rate of the gross domestic product totaled 102.5% as against the last year’s level while industrial output growth rate reached 111%. The stock in storage is at its minimum. Stability was preserved in foreign trade. Export is growing fast. The surplus of foreign trade exceeded $800 million. It is a record high figure of the last ten years. Financial indicators of Belarusian real sector enterprises improved considerably. Net profit exceeded Br3.3 billion while net loss was recorded in Q1 2020. As for the enterprises still operating in the red, their total losses fell by more than ten times, the prime minister noted.

All the social commitments of the state are honored. Earnings of individuals rose by nearly 3% in real terms while salaries went up by 6% and pensions grew by 2.7%. The ratio of public sector salaries to the country’s average salary was nearly 82%. An increase in unemployment was prevented. Nearly 13,000 people found new jobs, Roman Golovchenko stressed.

However, those, who failed to achieve their goals with street riots and redirected their efforts to the destruction of the Belarusian economy and to the reduction of living standards of the nation, dislike these results. “Regular attempts are being made to test us and find weak spots using all kinds of methods. The first planned operation meant to destroy the country’s financial system has failed spectacularly. It had a simple goal: after cutting Belarus off from Western financial resources they wanted to use a broad network of provocateurs and agents to start rumors about an imminent devaluation, the freezing of bank deposits, and other horrors in order to paralyze the Belarusian banking system. This plan has failed. The Belarusian ruble is stable and grows stronger against world currencies. More foreign currency flowed into banks than out of banks during this period. In April alone the gold and foreign exchange reserves increased by $338 million to $7.3 billion as of 1 May,” Roman Golovchenko stated.

This is why the West decided to resort to sanctions. “Belarusian enterprises are the target this time. The West disregards the fact that the sanctions will ultimately affect common Belarusians, for which wellbeing the West allegedly cares,” Roman Golovchenko stated. “But we are a sovereign and self-directed state and are capable of protecting our citizens and our enterprises. Upon the president’s instructions the government has prepared a set of special protective measures in full compliance with our laws. But I believe it will be quite painful for the countries that demonstrate an obviously hostile stance – starting with an embargo on merchandise import and ending with the restriction of transit. But we still count on the common sense of those, who are hurrying up to pass the point of no return, and suggest they should sober up and think once again before starting an economic war that will have no winners.”

The government understands that the sanctions will be painful. “We will also have to promptly diversify export and reduce spending on non-priority goals and deal with a number of other issues. But sovereignty and independence have never been achieved easily. One has to fight for them and be ready for hardships. I would like to remind that absolutely all the scenarios of color revolutions in the last decade from Tunisia to Ukraine had the same outcome: a drastic decrease in living standards in comparison with the prerevolutionary period, bloody redistribution of wealth, and slippage into the debt pit. And actual transition to external administration. It is the result of forced democratization, for which common people always have to pay,” the official concluded.