MOSCOW, 9 December (BelTA) - The deficit in trade with Russia has been decreasing, Belarusian Ambassador to Russia Vladimir Semashko said and cited some figures to confirm the trend as he talked to the media on 9 December, BelTA has learned.
The ambassador recalled that Belarus had a deficit of $9.7 billion in trade with Russia last year. “These are huge numbers, about 15% of GDP," he said. In January-September of this year the deficit in the Belarusian-Russian trade totaled $5.9 billion, well below $7.1 billion in January-September a year before. “Thus we see that the deficit has reduced by $1.2 billion,” Vladimir Semashko stressed. The results of trade in January-October of this year show a further decrease in the deficit.
Belarus' exports to Russia rose by 3.7%. “This is higher than trade figures with other countries,” he said.
“Judge for yourselves: the export has been growing while the deficit has been decreasing,” Vladimir Semashko noted.