MINSK, 19 February (BelTA) – All basic social and economic development targets are on track in Q1 2019 except for agriculture, Belarus Economy Minister Dmitry Krutoi told the media ahead of the meeting of the Council of Ministers to review the social and economic development in 2018 and economic performance in Q1 2019, BelTA has learned.
“We made the estimates for the first quarter. So far we see that it is only agriculture that is in the negative territory. All other targets will be reached,” the minister said.
Speaking about the situation in agriculture, the minister called it challenging. “Unfortunately, the negative trends of the previous year continued into January,” he said. The production of livestock products, greenhouse vegetables, flowers has decreased. “We need to understand what is going on: either the Belarusians have started to consume more imported products or our producers are underperforming,” Dmitry Krutoi said.
The minister believes that the problems in agriculture are becoming systemic. “For the past four years, agriculture has expanded by just 4%. For example, in the Russian Federation the growth was 7.5% and was 10.5% by 2014,” he stated. “In view of the administrative barriers and obstacles which exist in our key export market, it is clear that there is a risk for our farmers being squeezed out. We cannot allow this to happen,” Dmitry Krutoi said.
As it was reported, in accordance with the quarterly forecasts approved by the government, Belarus' GDP is expected to rise by 0.6% in Q1 and 4% in 2019. According to the Belarus National Statistics Committee, the GDP inched up by 0.7% in January.
