economy

On 23 April 2013 Belarus witnessed a terrible death. 25-year old Yulia Kubareva passed away after undergoing an unfortunate nose reconstruction surgery at Ecomedservice — one of the largest private medical centres in Belarus.

By now, almost every Belarusian knows about the accident, and the government has launched mass inspections of private medical services...

On 25 April 2013 Tatsiana Matoryna, Director of the Brest Stocking Plant — one of the largest apparel industry companies in the former Soviet Union— blamed sharp decreases in the plant’s sales on Belarus’ economic integration with Russia and Kazakhstan.

The accusation has serious grounds: in 2013, the volume of sales from the plant decreased by about 30% compared...

This April economic growth in Belarus was nearly at the level of last year's, which still remains significantly below the official forecast.

The financial sector showed certain stability but the situation with attracting foreign capital and the nation's privatisation prospects remain uncertain.

The growth of consumer and commercial deposits in Belarusian rubles...

On 17 April 2013 Standard and Poor's upgraded its outlook on Belarus sovereign rating from stable to positive.  According to the agency, strengthening economic stability was brought  on by tightened monetary and fiscal policies. 

The beneficial change means more than a pleasant evaluation of the country’s performance, but also a signal to foreign investors...

On 12 April Alexander Lukashenka made his final decision on the public administration reform that he declared last year. He signed Decree No. 168 that aims to optimise the state apparatus and reduce the number of civil servants.

The reform did not any further than sacking 25% of government officials. The reductions should allow the government to raise the salaries for the...

Amidst the snowy spring of 2013, the National Bank of Belarus finally gave up on its attempts to maintain macroeconomic stability and turned its attention to the real sector.  

The National Bank began carrying out a policy of providing cheap credit to carry out modernization, the new holy cow of the government. It also set its sights on meeting the forecasted 8.5% of GDP growth...

Belarus is awaiting reforms to the public administration system, ordered by Alexander Lukashenka last year. It looks like the president’s main motive is to save money. Considerations of efficiency come second. However, the existing system of public administration cannot boast of particularly outstanding achievements.

Several indicators point to the necessity of a serious overhaul...

Last year net foreign direct investments into the real sector of Belarusian economy dropped by 75 per cent compared to 2011, according to recently release figures of the Belarusian Statistics Committee.

The pretext for sentimental patriots to moan is another reason for state authorities to rack their brains. They have eased tax burden, extended territories with privileged regimes,...

The Belarusian government has announced its plans to modernise the national economy. However, the content of the policy package is far from clear. Given the experience accumulated by Belarus and other transition economies, there are reasons to warn about possible traps that modernization policy could set, if implemented unwisely.

The government has announced a new course for...

Belarusians in their modern history saw two major economic crises. The first followed the collapse of the Soviet Union in early 1990s and the second was in 2011 when many thought the Belarusian economy would crumble. The 2011 currency crisis and inflation dramatically changed well-being of Belarusians. Consumer prices went up 108 percent within a...

The Belarusian authorities count on the country's economic growth without taking into account dangerous trends in the demographic situation and its consequences for the labour market. These conclusions appear in a study made by economists of the IPM Research Center, shared with Interfax-West news agency.

"Intentions of the Belarusian authorities to proceed with large-scale...

Each time the Belarusian economy hits a bump experts start to predict a forthcoming full-scale privatisation in Belarus. The logic is simple: when the level of subsidies from Russia diminishes and foreign lenders refuse to extend new loans, then the only remaining option is to privatise state enterprises. But it is already 2013 and the properly remains largely in state hands.

A recent...