July 16, Pozirk. Belarus’ economic growth slowed to 2.1 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2025, down from 2.5 percent in the January–May period, according to the National Statistical Committee (Biełstat).
Since the beginning of the year, GDP growth has steadily decelerated: from 3.7 percent in January, to 3.1 percent in both the January–February and January–March periods, then down to 2.8 percent in January–April.
Despite the slowdown, the government maintains a GDP growth target of 4.1 percent for 2025.
Industrial production growth also weakened, reaching just 0.3 percent in the first six months of the year. This contrasts sharply with a 7.1 percent increase reported in the same period of 2024. The industrial sector has been in decline for the past 11 consecutive months.
Agricultural output fell by 2.7 percent year-on-year in January–June, after surging by 10.2 percent during the same period in 2024.
Cargo transportation volumes across all sectors declined by 3.6 percent in the first half of the year.
Accounts receivable — debts owed to Belarusian companies for goods sold on credit — rose by 28.5 percent to 94.3 billion rubels ($28.8 billion) as of June 1. This figure includes 10.9 billion rubels in overdue debts.
At the same time, corporate accounts payable — the debts Belarusian companies owe — increased by 31.3 percent, reaching 112.1 billion rubels. Overdue debts accounted for 12.9 billion rubels of that total.
Retail trade growth also lost momentum, slowing to 9 percent in the first half of 2025, compared with 12.5 percent in January.
