MINSK, 26 June (BelTA) – Belarus is gradually getting back on track for recovery, First Vice Premier Vasily Matyushevsky said when speaking at the joint session of the Belarusian parliament on 26 June, BelTA has learned.
“The economic performance in the recent months has been showing that the Belarusian economy is back on track. The GDP growth target for H1 has been over-fulfilled: 0.9% as against the projected 0.2%,” the official said.
Vasily Matyushevsky noted that the inflation rate is low (2.7% as against the H1 projections of 6.7%). The interest load on the real economic sector is on the decrease (the interest rate of 15% on new loans for legal entities is record-low over the past five years). Organizations' financial performance is improving. “The profitability of sales went up to 7.4% (from 6.6% in January-April 2016). Net profits soared 2.8 times at a time when net loss per organization in the red reduced by 32%. Production costs are reducing. Real wage has been growing for the third month in a row amid its decline in the past two years. In general, the wage growth is linked to the growth of labor productivity,” he said.
The first vice premier noted that the GDP growth is driven mainly by external demand. “Favorable external trends enable us to build up export at a high pace (up 19.5% in January-April). It is worth mentioning that the technology export has been growing faster than that of raw materials,” he said. Vasily Matyushevsky also noted that in January-April Belarus exported investment goods almost 1.5 times more than last year, which shows a qualitative improvement of the export structure.
