Dictator's Treasury Became $3,5 Billion Thinner

Foreign currency earnings of Belarus have fallen by 14% in January-September.

According to the National Bank, foreign exchange earnings of Belarus amounted to 21.4 billion dollars in January-September, which is 14%, or $ 3.5 billion less than in the same period last year.

This year's fall in foreign exchange earnings of Belarus is mainly associated with the decrease in export revenues. Thus, income from exports of goods in January-September this year have amounted to US $ 16.7 billion which is 15.8% or more than $ 3 billion less than in the same period of the previous year, BelaPAN reports.

Income from exports of services in January-September this year have amounted to US $ 4.18 billion which is 6.1% or more than $ 311.6 billion less than in the same period of the previous year.

As foreign trade data demonstrates, the decrease (in monetary terms) of exports of Belarusian oil products, oil and potash fertilizers, which are sold in Asia and Western Europe, had the main negative impact on the dynamics of foreign exchange earnings of Belarus.

As a result, in January-September, foreign exchange earnings of Belarus coming from non-CIS countries, have amounted to 11.72 billion dollars, which is nearly 3.16 billion dollars less than in the same period last year.

Exports of goods and services and, as a result, foreign exchange earnings of Belarus have been falling for the fourth consecutive year already. Thus, Belarusian export fell by 15.1% in 2013 if compared to the same period of 2012, it fell by 1.7% in 2014, by 24.2% in 2015 and by 12.5% in January-September of this year if compared to the same period of the previous year.

According to the Belarusian economists, the decline of exports and foreign exchange earnings was mainly caused by two reasons.

The first – a decline of world market prices for oil products exported by Belarus and the reduction in demand for potash fertilizers.

"The other reason for the reduction of foreign exchange earnings has deeper roots and is associated with the fall of the competitiveness of Belarusian enterprises," – the lead researcher of the Belarusian Economic Research and Outreach Center (BEROC) Katsiaryna Barnukova noted in her comments to journalists. In particular, she believes that Russia's WTO accession in 2012 has led to the increased competition in the main markets where Belarusian products are sold, so it has become more difficult for the domestic exporters to sell them there.