Former National Bank Head Tells What Will Happen To Belarusian Economy In 2022

Today Belarus is at the bottom of the European list in terms of living standards and wages.

Recently, Lukashenka signed a decree “On the most important parameters of the forecast of socio-economic development of the Republic of Belarus for 2022”.

The National Bank and the “government” were instructed to “take measures” to limit inflation next year at 6%.

Former head of the National Bank Stanislau Bahdankevich in a comment to udf notes that he is skeptical about the plans of officials for the economy.

“Under the existing conditions - when the country's image is as low as possible, when there is no investment, but there are sanctions, when, in fact, the economy has not grown for 10 years (its size remains at the level of $ 60 billion) - the declared figure is even very optimistic. Rather, next year we will not expect growth, but a fall in GDP,” Bahdankevich said.

In other words, stagnation and decline.

“A collapse is unlikely to happen. But the slow deterioration of life will continue. If only because the most breakthrough technologies are not in India, China or Russia, but in the West. Where there are scientific discoveries and most of all Nobel laureates,” Bahdankevich noted.

Commenting on the plans to “increase the income of the population”, the former head of the National Bank stated the following:

“Today we are at the bottom of the European list in terms of living standards and salaries. We stand where Moldova is. Even Ukraine has almost caught up with us in terms of the average salary.”

Bahdankevich pointed out:

“If we talk about salaries and pensions, today the main indicator here is inflation on food products. And today it is at least 15% for some groups of goods. This suggests that the part of the population that receives a salary below the average is experiencing a deterioration in the standard of living.”