The situation in the Belarusian economy in 2017 is expected to
improve as compared with 2016, Belarusian Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov
told reporters after a meeting with the head of state to discuss
current matters of the development of the economy on 10 February.
“There are all preconditions to ensure that 2017 is much better than
2016. There are both internal and external prerequisites. I see really
positive trends. Almost all industries exceeded the 2015 production
volumes at the end of last year,” Andrei Kobyakov said.
Andrei Kobyakov noted that it was the timber industry that was
lagging behind. But there is a tendency toward recovery. “I am sure that
this will actually happen in 2017. There were problems in the
petrochemical industry related to the restrictions in the oil supplies.
All other industries such as engineering, light industry, food industry
have been on the rise,” the Belarusian Prime Minister said. According to
preliminary statistics, the industrial output surged by 5.9% in January
this year as against January 2016.
In addition, the financial health of business entities in 2016 was
markedly better than in 2015. The number of companies working in the red
reduced significantly; net profit went up 1.5 times.
“These are the signs of the economic recovery,” said Andrei Kobyakov.
He also mentioned the decline in the interest rates and inflation, and
the stable situation in the currency market.
“We also see preconditions for recovery in the markets of our major trading partners,” Andrei Kobyakov said.
As for the average salary target, Andrei Kobyakov stressed that the
country will not print money to spur up the domestic demand. “This is
unacceptable. All participants of the meeting were unanimous about this.
This target must be achieved through the growth in production, export,
labor productivity, and through the optimization of personnel numbers at
the companies that have completed upgrade programs. But this
optimization should be socially responsible and new jobs should be
created,” the Prime Minister emphasized.
Written by belta.by
