Economy Ministry: Belarus has adapted to sanctions-related shocks

The Belarusian economy has adapted to the shocks brought about by the sanctions, and has made up for the loss of Western markets, the head of foreign trade forecasting at the Economy Ministry Yulia Zubar said commenting on the country's foreign trade outcomes in January - September 2023, BelTA learned from the press service of the Economy Ministry.

According to Yulia Zubar, although the import of goods and services grew faster than their export, foreign trade remains balanced. “The trade surplus exceeded $0.5 billion: the trade surplus in services ($2.1 billion) fully compensated for the trade deficit in goods ($1.6 billion). Moreover, the trade surplus in goods was achieved for the first time in September 2023 ($71 million). “Export in monetary terms is still the highest in the past 11 years. The growth came on the back of export volumes, which shows that the economy has adapted to the sanctions-related shocks and has successfully made up for the loss of markets,” Yulia Zubar emphasized.

According to her, this year Belarus has completely re-directed trade flows from Western countries and Ukraine to the markets of friendly nations, mostly Russia and Asian countries. The share of friendly countries in Belarus' exports increased by 14%.

“The export of consumer goods (11.7%) and investment goods (6.6%) is rapidly growing. This is facilitated by the recovery of investment activity, as well as pent-up demand in our key market - the Russian Federation. The export of goods to Russia in monetary terms is at its highest. Thus, in January-September 2023 alone, the export to the Russian Federation amounted to $18.7 billion, which is more than what Belarus exported in a year until 2021. Supplies to Asian countries rose 1.5 times, to North America and South America increased 1.4 times. We are steadily increasing exports to the Chinese market: they grew by more than 10% in nine months,” Yulia Zubar concluded.