MINSK, 3 December (BelTA) – Inflation has become a global problem, Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko told the media following a meeting with the head of state to discuss the social and economic development of the country, BelTA has learned.
Speaking about inflation, the prime minister explained that this is now a global problem. Belarus' partners in the Eurasian Economic Union are also dealing with it. "The world has entered an era of high inflation, the reasons are known: an unprecedented money issue by the central banks of the Eurozone, the United States, and the price growth due to disruption in production and logistics chains," he said.
Roman Golovchenko cited the data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization: in January-September alone, food prices in the world increased by 30%. The cost of container transportation has increased almost three times. "These are huge expenses that manufacturers incorporate into the cost of their goods and services. So, naturally, these increased costs translate into prices. This is the so-called imported inflation," the head of government said.
"This is reality, but not a reason for us to sit idle. We cannot afford to shrug it and tell people 'you know, prices are rising everywhere, this is an imported inflation'," Roman Golovchenko emphasized.
According to him, the government will continue to take administrative and economic measures to curb the inflation. Certain results have already been achieved. "If it were not for the measures that we took, including administrative measures to restrain prices (although we do not believe that this is the best tool, but still), the inflation in the country would have been double-digit," he said. “Next year a certain influence [of negative external factors] will remain in place, but the situation will calm down. Already now, given the data for October, we see that the inflation has slowed down. For 23 days of November, the price edged up by as little as 0.2%. For a month it will be maybe 0.3%. This is the standard level of price growth that we had in non-inflation years," the prime minister said.
Against the background of increased inflation, real incomes of the population rose even higher. "This is also a small victory over it," the head of government said.
As BelTA has reported, at today's meeting Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko demanded to take measures to curb the inflation. “High inflation is the most discussed topic at the moment,” the Belarusian leader said. The president stressed that there are arguments to support the fact that inflation is ‘imported', but there is no need to focus on them only. “We plan to have a single-digit inflation of 6% next year,” said the head of state.
