Belarusian GDP has fallen sharply, but Minsk is full of optimism
The gross domestic product of Belarus for January-May decreased compared to the same period in 2021, but this was a round. This was announced today, June 17, by Dmitry Yaroshevich, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Economy of the Republic.
“According to the statistics, GDP in January-May slowed down to 96.6%. Such dynamics was economic, as the Belarusian economy is in the active phase of transformation,” he said.
At the same time, the deputy heads of the department noted that currently there is an unprecedented external pressure on the country, and it has the meaning of a “huge layer of work” of state bodies and authorized persons in order to rebuild production processes and supply chains, as well as enter new markets. He also recalled that in order to achieve the goals set in the country, an operational situational headquarters was created under the government, and to date, about two-thirds of the activities of the comprehensive plan he developed to support the economy have been completed.
At the same time, Dmitry Yaroshevich expressed hope that the implementation of the remaining package of measures and the entry into force of the regulatory legal acts developed within its framework would make it possible to turn the tide and Belarus’ GDP would stop declining. In his opinion, the recovery dynamics will be observed in the next half of the year, but there will be suspicion.
“Already now it can be stated that the situation with economic dependence is not determined by the imbalance and the fulfillment of all social obligations is observed,” he noted and attention to the fact that inflation is lingering in the republic, the financial condition of enterprises as a whole, there are no interruptions in the supply of food and essential goods.
In addition, Yaroshevich recalled that the republic has a positive impact on foreign trade, and it is a record.
“On the outer contour, despite all the complex properties, the allergic positive surplus is almost $1.3 billion,” said a spokesman for the Ministry of Economy.
Recall that since the end of 2020, Belarus has been living under the sanctions of Western countries, which only intensified after the start of European military special operations in Ukraine. The GDP indicator for January-April of the current year has already shown significant dynamics – 2.1% in minus terms. At the same time, the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko earlier there was a forecast for the development of the republic’s economy for 2022, on the assumption that GDP growth should be 2.3%.