MINSK, 7 October (BelTA) – The economy demonstrates historically high quality indicators of balance. Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko made the statement during a conference held to inform representatives of defense, security, and law enforcement agencies about the military, political, social, and economic situation, BelTA has learned.
Roman Golovchenko said: “The economy demonstrates historically high quality indicators of balance. It underscores the high adaptiveness of the Belarusian economy to external shocks as well as the adequacy and effectiveness of the measures being taken. Certainly, it would be super optimistic to expect that the sanctions have had no effect on us since we've been dealt a serious massive blow. It is natural that the economy lost some of its gross added value at a certain stage. Nevertheless, monthly GDP dynamics has been improving since August. In January-August 2022 the indicator gained 0.3 percentage points in comparison with January-July and amounted to 95.1%. It means the economy is moving to a recovery growth trajectory. It is necessary to secure this trend.”
In his words, foreign trade surplus has been secured. It amounted to $2.8 billion in January-July, which is a historic high. The figure improved by $700 million in comparison with January-July 2021. Net foreign direct investments totaled $1.7 billion in H1 2022.
The government and the central bank have done some work to stabilize the country's financial market. “There is no speculative demand for foreign currency. So far this year the population's foreign currency sales have exceeded purchases by about $400 million. Fixed-term deposits of individuals in Belarusian rubles are on the rise. They increased by nearly Br1 billion or 20%. The stability of the Belarusian ruble's exchange rate makes people confident,” the prime minister stressed.
Roman Golovchenko remarked that since the beginning of the year the Belarusian ruble has gained 17% against the euro and 4% against the U.S. dollar. As of 1 October the country's gold and foreign exchange reserves stood at $7.5 billion while the target was at least $7 billion.
