Opinions & Interviews
Belarusian currency market, financial market remain stable
MINSK, 2 March (BelTA) – The Belarusian currency market and the financial market remain stable. Prime Minister of Belarus Andrei Kobyakov made the statement during the government conference on 2 March, BelTA has learned. During the conference the central government, the central bank, the oblast administrations, and the Minsk city administration informed the head of state about economy performance in 2017 and the tasks meant to ensure sustainable economic growth.
Andrei Kobyakov noted that in 2017 they were able to compensate for underperformance of the year 2016. “We went back into the forecast corridor of the five-year program on 11 main social and economic development indicators out of 13 ones. We failed to hit two indicators — the growth of real revenues of Belarusians (0.6 percentage points behind) and the volume of construction and installation work (1.1 percentage points behind),” explained the head of government.
Thus, the Belarusian economy is developing in accordance with the main parameters of the 2016-2020 program. Meanwhile, stability is preserved on the currency market, the loans and deposits market, and the financial market. “We’ve honored our commitments in foreign currency in full. In 2017 the state budget had a surplus of Br2.8 billion, which was used to pay off some of the external state debt,” said Andrei Kobyakov.
“All the social commitments were honored while observing frugal spending principles. The main conclusion is we live within our means,” concluded the Belarusian head of government.
As for tasks for the year 2018, performance targets have been assigned to people in charge starting with the central government and ending with heads of district administrations and individual enterprises. The Economy Ministry took a close look at plans concerning the development of economy branches and regions in order to coordinate the tasks and expected resources between regions and between industries.
Work is now in progress to raise the GDP by 3.5%. Tasks have been assigned with regard to 53 commodity balances, which cover over 60% of the industrial products and agricultural ones. It is necessary to increase the export of merchandise and services by $2 billion (105.7% as against 2017). As they presented their business plans, key companies confirmed that their sale strategies for 2018 will be filled by over 70%, including filled with foreign trade contracts.
Plans have been made to raise Br23 billion in investments from all sources, 105% as against 2017. Close attention will be paid to the implementation of the 50 largest projects with their volume of investments at Br7.6 billion. Raising the average salary and creating more jobs will also be in the center of attention. “The demand that salaries can be raised only after labor productivity rises still stands,” stressed Andrei Kobyakov.
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