Currency proceeds declined by 20%

In November foreign exchange revenues in Belarus amounted to $3 billion 72 million.

According to the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus, it decreased by almost 20% as compared to October, BelaPAN reports.

The decline in foreign exchange revenues is actually observed due to decrease of Belarusian export proceeds. So, in November export proceeds amounted to $2 billion 451.4 million and decreased compared to October by $648 million or by 20.9% respectively.

Significant decline in currency revenues was connected with the decline of those, which Belarus gets from Russia.

So, in November currency proceeds amounted to $1 billion 329.8 million and declined by 19.5% compared to October. In this case, currency proceeds in Russian rubles amounted to $1 billion 126 million and declined by 22.3% compared to October.

It should be reminded that in the fourth quarter of 2014, the rate of devaluation of the Russian ruble was accelerated, causing the decline of export proceeds in dollar terms in Belarus.

Mikhail Miasnikovich, the Prime Minister of Belarus, in his speech in November at the "House of Representatives", stressed that due to the decline in prices (in dollar terms) in the Russian market Belarusian exporters had to look for other geographic areas of marketing their products.

"The situation is that we get 92% of currency proceeds from Russia in Russian rubles. Devaluation would lead to an equivalent change in prices in the Russian market. Unfortunately, this is not happening. For this reason, companies tend to look for other markets", Miasnikovich explained.

The Belarusian exports, he said, was negatively affected in 2014 by the strengthening of the Belarusian ruble against the Russian currency. "Combined factors are too complex and require serious business decisions", Miasnikovich stressed.

It should be noted that, according to the Ministry of Industry, the strengthening of the Belarusian ruble against the Russian one has led to significant losses at domestic industrial enterprises. "These currency exchange rate fluctuations have had a negative impact on the net profit. In the first nine months of 2014 costs of interest on loans and currency exchange rate differences (in the amount of Br3 trillion 62.7 billion) "ate" a significant portion of profits (Br3 trillion 654 billion) of organizations from product sales", Aliaksandr Aharodnikau, the Deputy Minister of Industry, said in his article published in the December issue of the magazine published by the Ministry of Finance "Finance. Accounting. Audit".