Opinions & Interviews

Belarus PM: Timely decisions amid pandemic helped keep national economy running

Roman Golovchenko. An archive photo

MINSK, 23 July (BelTA) – Timely decisions amid the pandemic helped preserve the country’s economy, Belarus’ Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko said at a meeting hosted by the Belarusian head of state on 23 July, BelTA has learned.

According to Roman Golovchenko, the head of state set the tasks before the new government. The main of them was to prevent the economy from collapsing. “The international financial organizations – IMF, World Bank, and others – predicted deep recession in Belarus. They still forecast a decline of the country’s GDP by 4-6%,” the prime minister said.

In his words, similar forecasts have also been made in respect to Belarus’ major trading partners. “The timely decisions taken by the head of state not to close down companies and support those most affected by the pandemic helped preserve the country’s economy. The government worked closely with regional authorities to address the most urgent issues,” the Belarusian head of government said.

For example, tax benefits and preferences (delays, installments, tax credits) to the tune of more than Br31 million have been granted to about 36,000 entities and individual entrepreneurs under Decree No.143 to support the national economy. More than 6,000 decisions have been adopted locally to grant rental holidays. The amount of this support totaled Br25 million. Measures are being implemented to support employees of commercial and budgetary organizations.

“The largest assistance was allocated to make incentive payments to healthcare and social care workers. The so-called COVID allowances amounted to Br213 million,” Roman Golovchenko noted.

He added that following the decision of the head of state on the current support of enterprises, some Br145 million in credit resources has been issued under the government's guarantees, or 29% of the limit set up by the president.  Another Br109 million has been granted under local guarantees, or 15.6% of the limit.

print version

make home page

add to bookmarks