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Snopkov: Belarus’ foreign trade growing despite sanctions

MINSK, 22 October (BelTA) – For the past several years foreign trade has been gaining momentum despite the continuing pressure, Belarus’ First Deputy Prime Minister Nikolai Snopkov said at a joint sitting of the House of Representatives and the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus in Minsk on 22 October, BelTA has learned.

"Belarusian-made products are undoubtedly in demand in foreign markets. In the current five-year period, foreign trade has been gaining momentum despite the continuing pressure. As a result, this year we are approaching the target of the five-year plan: $50 billion in exports. Over the past three years, we have made up for the export volumes that we lost in the markets of Western countries and Ukraine and even exceeded them. Physical volumes of exports of major commodities have been fully restored," Nikolai Snopkov said.

According to him, the restricted access to external financing is the key risk for the development of Belarus' economic potential at the moment. "But even under these conditions, we are ensuring the basic criteria for financial stability – we have reduced gross external debt, including public external debt. The level of reinvested earnings by foreign investors also corresponds to the level seen in recent years prior to the imposition of tough sanctions," Nikolai Snopkov said. He emphasized that special attention is being paid to domestic financing.

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