MINSK, 10 December (BelTA) – In January-October 2021 Belarus' GDP grew mostly on the back of the export, Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko said as he met with members of the House of Representatives and the Council of the Republic in the Oval Hall to discuss budget bills on 10 December, BelTA has learned.
“Over 10 months this year, the country's GDP grew by 2.4%. The forecast for the year is 1.8%. In other words, we are beating the forecast so far. It is important that the growth is attributed mainly to the export,” said Roman Golovchenko.
The prime minister noted that Belarus' foreign trade is balanced. “Over the nine months, the trade surplus reached $2.7 billion, or 5.5% of GDP. The export of goods over 10 months increased by almost $8.5 billion. The export grew across all commodity items both in terms of prices and volumes. As a result, we have a current account surplus of about $1.1 billion. In other words, we receive enough foreign exchange revenues to service the external debt,” he stressed.
Roman Golovchenko added that all sectors of the economy performed well. “The only exceptions were agriculture and construction due to well-known circumstances. I would like to note that the financial standing of domestic companies improved. Thus, the profitability of sales in January-October rose to 8.3%, and that in the manufacturing - almost 10%. The net profit of companies rose from Br4.9 billion to Br14.4 billion a three-times increase year-on-year. The number of loss-making companies dropped by 7.8%, and the net loss decreased 5 times,” he informed.
