Lukashenko's "biggest Problem" Continues To Escalate

And there's no hiding it anymore.

Minus in foreign trade in January-September increased by $1.4 billion, or 45% in the same period last year. This follows from the data of the National Statistics Committee.

The volume of foreign trade in goods and services amounted to $63 billion 733 million at the end of nine months. At the same time, exports sagged by 2.43% and were $29.6 billion by the same period last year. Imports for the same period rose by 2.2% to $34.1 billion. As a result, the negative - we are talking about the excess of supplies of foreign goods and services over their exports - balance was formed at the level of 4.55 billion dollars.

If we look by regions, the supply of our products and services to the CIS countries (mainly to Russia) remained at about the same level as in the same period last year. There was an increase of 0.3%, amounting to $21.7 billion. Imports from there - again primarily from Russia - increased by 1.3% (to $19.8 billion).

At the same time, exports to other countries decreased by almost 10.6% to $7.9 billion, while imports from there increased by 2% to $14.3 billion.

What officials say about the problem

Officials have been struggling with imports for years, but are experiencing difficulties with it. Meanwhile, Belarus is getting closer and closer to Russia in terms of foreign trade.

In mid-August 2024, the Ministry of Economy told why there are difficulties in foreign trade: imports of goods are outpacing exports. The ministry believes that oil and potash prices are "to blame" for this, among other things. Recall, earlier this ministry blamed the problems in foreign trade, including the population - because of the increased demand for imported goods.

The problem in foreign trade was pointed out by Alexander Lukashenko on June 17, 2024: it alarms him. On the same day, then Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko (now he holds the position of the head of the National Bank) explained why imports of goods exceed exports. In his opinion, "there is no "some catastrophe". "If we talk about the reasons, they are also prosaic: the world price of oil has risen, respectively, we buy crude oil, so it has played into the increase in the cost of imports," stated Roman Golovchenko.

Also, Alexander Lukashenko has previously repeatedly talked about the problems with the sale of goods in Russia - sales are falling in this market. September 8, the dictator said that the biggest problem for Belarus today is to find new markets for domestic products, which can't be sold "due to certain objective reasons" in Russia.

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