Every Belarusian owes about 10 salaries

Over the last 5 years the external debt of Belarus doubled.

Salidarnasts offers to recall how the gross external debt of the country changed over the last 20 years. The figures are striking.

According to the National Bank, as of January 1, 2015 the gross external debt of Belarus was $4225 per capita. Over the last 5 years it has almost doubled, BelaPAN informs.

Using the official data, let’s recall how the debts of Belarusians were growing over the last two years.

1996 — $ 148
1997 — $ 187
1998 — $ 211
1999 — $ 234
2000 — $ 221
2001 — $ 209
2002 — $ 298
2003 — $ 393
2004 — $ 423
2005 — $ 503
2006 — $ 525
2007 — $ 705
2008 — $ 705
2009 — $ 1290
2010 — $ 2327
2011 — $ 2996
2012 — $ 3595
2013 — $ 3568
2014 — $ 4185

Thus, from 1996 to 2015 the external debt of Belarus per capita has grown a little more than by 28 times. And while 20 years ago each Belarusian owed about two average annual salaries, now its debt is about ten salaries.

The story of living on credit

The statistics shows that until the beginning of 200ies the external debt was growing rather gradually. In this period Alyaksandr Lukashenka liked to underline that the country was not living on credit under his rule, and was not going to do so.

- We have not squandered our national wealth, we have not been snatching foreign loans, have not run up a debt, which our children and grandchildren would have to repay! – he said at the Second All-Belarusian Assembly on May 18, 2001.

But the second presidential “election” was close at hand, and then another “referendum”, which allowed to be nominated in further campaigns without limitations. Another threshold of salary was reached, which was dedicated to the new presidential election. The sum of $500, which was promised by the year 2010, cost new debt records. By the early 2009 each Belarusian’s debt was far more than $1,000.

The chain of crises accompanied by large-scale depreciations of the national currency, required new loans to save the economy. And that resulted in even more debts.

But the attitude of the government to debts changed as well. Now the life on credit has become a norm in fact, and every piece of news about another credit is presented almost as an achievement. That’s the way we are living in recent years: we are taking new loans to pay the old ones back.