Sanctions, weak domestic demand to keep Belarus’ exports low – EDB

September 5, BPN. Belarus is gradually redirecting its exports to Russia, but its adaptation to the sanctions along with weak domestic demand will keep exports low, the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) said in its recent macroeconomic report.

The EDB analysts also noted that annual trade may be higher than in 2021 on the back of higher export prices. They linked the trade surplus of $249 million reported by Belarusian statisticians with a fall in imports and a price spike of about 40 percent in U.S. dollars compared to 2021 levels.

At the same time, the EDB noted that sanctions have led to a drop of at least 25 percent in exports of goods.

According to National Statistics Committee (Belstat), in 2021 foreign trade totaled $81.7 billion with a deficit of $1.9 billion.

On August 15, the EDB analysts said that they expected Belarus’ GDP to contract by five percent in annual terms between January and September 2022, reaffirming their baseline forecast for 2022 at -6.5 percent.