Golovchenko: Belarusian economy in 2023 shows its sustainability

The Belarusian economy in 2023, despite all the challenges and difficulties, has shown its sustainability. This was said by Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko at the meeting of the Council of Ministers with the agenda on the socio-economic development of the Republic in 2023, reports BelTA.

"Macroeconomic balance has been preserved. The foreign trade surplus is $481 million. Compared to 2022, the balance has decreased, but there are objective reasons for that. Two of them are key - the fall in export prices by more than 15% for a wide range of goods and the growth of investment imports by 1.6 times, given the implementation of a significant number of investment projects in the country," said Roman Golovchenko.

According to him, the economy attracted $1.6 billion of foreign direct investment on a net basis. "The growth compared to 2022 is 7.3%, and 75% of this volume of foreign direct investment is invested in the real sector," the Prime Minister added.

"Inflation is in the forecast parameters. Consumer price growth in annual terms amounted to 105.8%, with a forecast of no more than 107-108%. This is one of the lowest inflation rates among the EAEU member countries," - said the head of the government.

The growth rate of gross domestic product amounted to 103.9% with the target of 103.8%. High rates of industrial production are provided by the Ministry of Industry (112.6%), Ministry of Agriculture (105.9%), Belarusian Petrochemical Industry (108.9%) and Belarusian State Food Industry (106.5%).