Minister: Belarus-Russia trade is close to a record
SAINT PETERSBURG, 30 January (BelTA) – Belarus-Russia trade is close to a
record, Belarusian Economy Minister Yuri Chebotar told reporters, BelTA
has learned.
“Our trade with Russia is on the rise. We exported
maximum volumes last year and the year before. We are on track to break
records, with a 12% increase of our export to Russia. However, Russia is
also increasing its export to Belarus. We have reached a trade surplus
with our main partner. Of course, this is gratifying. First of all, we
need to pay attention to those issues that need to be resolved in order
to keep ramping up our trade,” noted Yuri Chebotar.
A reminder,
Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at the Union State
Supreme State Council summit that the bilateral trade in goods and
services is going to break records when the final figures for 2023 come
out. “According to Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin], it exceeded $40
billion in ten months, but if we take the entire year (goods and
services), it will approximately be $54 billion. This is truly an
all-time high. Such a result was achieved largely thanks to the 28 Union
State programs, the implementation of which required taking fundamental
decisions. But we still need to develop general criteria for assessing
the effectiveness of their implementation,” the Belarusian leader noted.
In
January-November 2023 Belarus-Russia trade amounted to $44.29 billion,
up by 7.8% year-on-year. The export was estimated at $23.02 billion, the
import at $21.27 billion. The export of services amounted to $3.2
billion, the import stood at $2.15 billion. Thus, Belarus had a surplus
in trade both in goods and services.
