Leanid Zaika: Let Lukashenka Leave To Russia, And Government Resigns

The economist has summed up the results of 2019.

The website Charter97.org asked the head of the analytical center “Strategy”, economist Leanid Zaika to summarize the outgoing year.

- What was this year like for the Belarusian economy? What are the most important processes you would like to name?

- This year was a nothing. The dynamics was 1.1%. The country stands still and slightly trembles as a person to whom 220 watts were connected.

Lukashenka and the government tried to “make happy” Belarusians, and increased their nominal salaries by 14%. The result - it still did not work out. They gave 14% more money, and the cart moved forward by just a centimeter. This is a rather dangerous policy, not economically feasible.

Third point: export did not work, although there were opportunities this year due to restructuring. By the way, Belarus started making electric scooters. This is the “greatest” decision since the election of Lukashenka: finally they started to do something.

The next moment: after the domestic market began to fill up with banknotes, the Belarusian ruble began to fall. This suggests that economic laws in Belarus work despite the resistance of the officials and the government. All that the authorities have been doing in the recent years is to oppose the implementation of objective laws. They are a sort of luddites against the economic science.

Important: in the country the price of gasoline increased 27 times. I must say that this is almost a world record. I would suggest increasing the price of socks and toilet paper. People will not notice. And, perhaps, it makes sense to increase the price of cars by one kapeyka if the manufacturers work in unison with oil carriers.

I attribute this to the phenomenon of Belarusian paradoxes. I will name one more as the result of the year: in the month of November I went to Kaliningrad. So, there potatoes are two times cheaper than in our potato republic. How hard they should have tried: produce potatoes and sell them twice as expensive as in the “citadel of Prussian militarism”!

- What, in your opinion, could improve the Belarusian economy?

- In order to accelerate the dynamics of the Belarusian economy, we need the following plan: Lukashenka leaves for Russia or the United Arab Emirates, and the government completely resigns. After that, we can form a professional government. It makes no sense to recommend something to them. Let them leave, and then we will begin to work.

- What are your forecasts for next year? Will the problems that have accumulated this year surface?

- Next year we may face the following problems: the devaluation of the Belarusian ruble, the increase in inflationary processes, the problem of paying off external debts, the problems of technical and technological lag, the bias towards “small issues” - such as taxes on motorists, how to sow flax and rapeseed, problems of conducting various disciplinary assignments in agriculture, dispersal of functionaries, and corruption.

In macroeconomic issues, this is an imbalance between production and consumption, a breakdown in the dynamics of sectors, an increase in material costs for the production of Belarusian products, and a transition to a high-quality state of the economy with high costs and low efficiency.

To all this, we can add the problem with the situation of internal savings, an increase in the share of consumer spending to the detriment of the savings of the population.

How can Belarusians deal with this? Turn on the TV, watch and laugh. Everyone has a job, potatoes are twice as expensive. How do people live? Invest in children's education.

- What grade would you give the government based on the results of economic “development” in 2019?

- I would give the government a -1 for 2019.

We must try to be smarter, to see who is trying to deceive us. Let's get smarter. Stop living on Russian oil and Russian gas. Let us begin to understand that our sovereignty is our knowledge and our brains. Let's not sit still, look around, and hope for Russia.

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