What Is The Reason For New Fall Of Belarusian Exports?

Many years of attempts to develop the "long-arc" still haven’t given any results.

The recent official statistics data evidence it: according to the data Belarus' export decreased by 11.8% in January-November of last year if compared to the corresponding period of 2015.

For comparison, exports of neighboring Ukraine fell by only 6% in 2016 - largely due to a trade war with Russia, which blocked the Ukrainian manufacturers from eastern markets, Zavtra Tvoej Strany (Tomorrow of your country) writes.

Why have Belarusian exports decreased so sharply?

The political analyst Valery Karbalevich believes that it is difficult to separate

economic factors from the political ones in the current situation.

– After all the conflict with Russia was caused by economic reasons, as Belarus has refused to pay for gas as per contract, – the expert explains. – Of course, the reduction in Russian oil supplies has affected the volume of exports. Since petroleum products are one of the main items of foreign trade.

But this does not remove the blame from the government, from the political leadership of the country, the expert emphasizes:

– Why is it that Belarus is dependent on a single product? And this product is dependent on good relations with one country - Russia? Moreover, our exports have fallen even for those countries where we don’t sell petroleum products.

According to the political analyst, this indicates that the Belarusian economy, and above all industry, is in a serious crisis.

– And it is the fault of the Belarusian leadership, which does not want to carry out market reforms that can improve the competitiveness of the economy, – Valery Karbalevich said.