Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 27 October (BelTA) – The inflation over the last nine months reached 2.7% (projected at 9% in 2017). This is a record low in the history of the independent Belarus, Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Kalinin noted at the joint session of the Belarusian parliament on 27 October, BelTA has learned.

He also stressed that the domestic currency market is properly operating in Belarus; the loans for real economy continue getting cheaper. In September 2017, the average annual interest rate on new loans reached 12.3% for legal entities and 12.1% for individuals. The refinancing rate was reduced to 11% in September.

“The trends remain positive in the main economic sectors, too. The industrial output went up by 6.1%. The production of vehicles, equipment, electronic devices, and chemical products has been growing. There has been progress in wood processing, metallurgy, pharmaceutics, and light industry,” the deputy prime minister said. In January-September 2017, net profit in the industry totaled Br2.6 billion, up 1.6 times from the same period a year prior. The number of loss-making enterprises has dropped. The backlog of finished products reached the lowest level in the last five years and now accounts for 60% of the average monthly output.

“There has been an uptrend in agriculture (101.7% growth rate) and animal breeding (102.2%),” Anatoly Kalinin remarked.

“The production of oil products is falling behind, accounting for 87.6% of the output as against the same period a year earlier due to the decreased supplies of Russian oil to Belarus’ refineries in early 2017. But we are gradually overcoming this lag,” the deputy prime minister added.