Lukashenko: People shop more often and buy more now
An archive photo
MINSK, 21 December (BelTA) – People shop more often and buy more now. Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko mentioned it during the government conference held on 21 December to discuss ways to improve the price regulation and oversight system, BelTA has learned.
First Deputy Prime Minister Nikolai Snopkov delivered a report about the consumer market situation. He stated that in January-November 2023 retail trade turnover rose by 8.2% in comparison with the same period of last year.
“In other words, people shop more often and buy more now. It is the key result,” the head of state noted after hearing these figures.
Meanwhile, profits of Belarusian retailers dropped to no surprise of the government. The decrease in profits was expected and predicted. “It could not have been otherwise because we controlled price markups,” Nikolai Snopkov explained. At the same time the official pointed out that only 137 organizations out of the 714 trade organizations covered by the National Statistics Committee turned out to be unprofitable in January-October 2023, including 105 organizations, which reported losses due to current operations.
“Most of the trade organizations demonstrate financial stability. Despite the fact that we’ve reduced price markups,” the first deputy prime minister stressed. “Price regulations have reduced profits but allow normal operation.”
In response the president advised the government to not particularly worry about falling profits of a small number of trade organizations. “As for their profits, you should not worry about profits of trade organizations,” the president remarked. “Well, they paid slightly less in taxes to the state budget. But it seems to me the budget is doing fine, isn’t it?”
“More than that,” Nikolai Snopkov responded.
“Don’t say ‘More than that’ while talking about it. Well done. Things are good where things are good. Otherwise, our poor fugitive opposition activists will come to their senses, will start crying that they don’t have money while money is here,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said with a bit of humor.
Returning to the topic of price controls, the president stated that initial fears of certain individuals regarding the introduction of state-regulated price controls had not been proven correct and economic indicators prove it. “Nothing happened. We work as usual,” the head of state stressed.
According to Nikolai Snopkov, consumer activity of the population remains high. “It is fuelled by the economic policy of our state, which has allowed increasing real salaries by over 10%. Adjusted for inflation,” the first deputy prime minister pointed out. “The growth of consumer lending increased by 1.5 times. The growth of real estate loans increased by 60%. Net sales of foreign currency by the population totaled $400 million.”
As a result, the volume of sales in the country has recovered after a decrease in 2022 and primarily sales of durable goods. In January-September 2023 sales of new automobiles rose by 11%, TV sets by 16%, bicycles by 18%, clothes by 58%. Food trade turnover increased by 4.9%, with non-food trade turnover up by 11%, thus allowing compensating for last year’s decrease by two times.
