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Economy ministry admits economic slowdown

 

All key sectors of the Belarusian economy did not grow in line with the GDP growth target for this year in the first five months of 2013, according to a report on the economy ministry’s website.

Belarus’ GDP grew by only 1.1 percent year-on-year in the first five months of 2013, 1.4 percentage points less than in the first four months, despite being forecast to grow by 8.5 percent this year, the report said.

The trade sector and net taxes on food reportedly contributed 1.3 and 1.1 percentage points, respectively, to GDP growth, while the industrial sector and transportation and communications subtracted 1.2 points and 0.1 point from it, respectively.

The economy ministry noted that growing domestic demand had been the main driver of economic growth in the first five months of 2013. Net exports contributed 16.7 percentage points to GDP growth in the first three months of 2012, while domestic demand subtracted eight points from it. By contrast, in the first three months of 2013, net exports subtracted 6.7 percentage points from GDP growth, while domestic demand contributed 12.4 points to it.

The performance of the Belarusian economy in the first five months of 2013 was in line with three out of eight key social and economic development targets for the year, the report said. In particular, Belarus had a surplus of 1.5 percent of GDP in foreign trade in goods and services; the energy intensity of GDP decreased by 18.4 percent, or 2.6 times more than the target; and the real (inflation-adjusted) disposable money income of Belarus' population rose by 21.6 percent.

Labor productivity increased by 3.5 percent, whereas the target for the year is an increase of 9.3 percent.

Belarus’ exports dropped by 80.4 percent as its key export markets shrank in the first four months.

Net foreign direct investment in the Belarusian economy totaled $1.5 billion in the first five months of 2013, or 150 percent more than in the same period of the previous year and one-third of the target for the year, the economy ministry said. // BelaPAN