Zaika: We face period of economizing, and officials should be first to spend less

The GDP of Belarus has dropped by almost 0.5%. Every fifth enterprise is loss-making.

The real income of the population has decreased as well. It’s high time to take emergency measures, Belast informs.

Last year the country had not met most of the most important criteria of the forecast for the social and economic development of Belarus. It has been stated by Prime Minister Andrei Kabyakou at the session of the Council of Ministers. The government is elaborating the program for the year 2015. They have analyzed several scenarios of development for that, proceeding from the situation in the world. As said by Kabyakou, consultations with partners of Belarus in the Customs Union have been held, and moves for each variant have been outlined. Which plan is real in the Belarusian conditions, and whether officials would be able to save the economy in the year of elections?

Leanid Zaika, an economist, stressed that now people with a mixed system of views on the economy are now in the government of Belarus: they range from Marxist to half-Marxist one. “Reform is a kind of a mantra. Belarus does not need reforms, it needs a simple, effective, normal, sensible, professional economic policy. That’s all, nothing else. And when Prime Minister had graduated from the Aviation Institute, and others had been invited for reasons of loyalty, nothing will work out,” the expert believes.

If production drops by 15-20% nationwide in Belarus, not in certain clusters or sectors, it’s normal. In this way the economy is going to dispose of unnecessary production units. “I would say that we a facing a period of economizing. The first ones who are to economize are the government, officials, the red tape. They should cut their own expenses. I think that the budget sector’s salaries should be limited, frozen. I think that space for development of business initiative and independent business should be offered,” – Zaika noted.