Belarus’ foreign trade surplus in 2024 projected at $900m
Yuri Chebotar. An archive photo
MINSK, 22 December (BelTA) – The Economy Ministry expects that the positive trend in the balance of foreign trade in goods and services, which was achieved at the end of 2023, will continue into 2024. The foreign trade surplus is projected at about $900 million in 2024, First Deputy Economy Minister Yuri Chebotar told the Economy of Belarus magazine in an interview.
Yuri Chebotar said: “Meanwhile, all the sanctions-based prohibitions of the year 2022 remain in place. Including against such important exports as oil products, fertilizers, woodworking products and ferrous metallurgy products, automobiles, tractors, tires. Ours is an open economy. Interaction with the rest of the world is very important for its normal operation. But despite all the negative forecasts the Belarusian economy has not only endured. It has also demonstrated performance in excess of the pre-sanctions year of 2021 in manufacturing sector, agriculture, and in individual kinds of services.”
A baseline for the year 2024 has been put together. It lists rather ambitious tasks aimed at further steady growth of the national economy, increasing the quality of life and revenues of the population, stepping up trade and economic cooperation with friendly countries, the first deputy economy minister said.
It is already obvious that the volume of export of goods and services in 2023 will reach a record high since 2012. It totaled $39.5 billion in January-October 2023. Merchandise export went up by $2.2 billion or 7.2% in cost terms purely thanks to an increase in physical shipments by a quarter. The fact indicates high demand for Belarusian products on foreign markets. Belarusian goods are represented on the markets of nearly 150 countries.
At the same time prices have a negative effect on the growth of export, Yuri Chebotar pointed out. Average export prices went down by more than 10%. The same trends are observed on global markets of raw materials. But even taking into account this fact and an increase in the volume of products Belarus imports, export exceeds import by a lot.
