Belarusian offshore blossoms in Europe

Exports of goods to European Union countries grew the fastest, more than doubling to $15.7 billion last year, the state statistics committee said on its website today.

That compares with an 18 percent decline in Belarusian exports to the EU in 2010.

Russia was Belarus’s main trade partner last year, accounting for 45 percent of the former Soviet republic’s foreign trade, according to the committee. Potash fertilizer and petroleum products were the main export items last year, while natural gas and crude oil comprised the biggest share of imports.