Profit margins, return on sales drop in Belarus

May 15, BPN. The National Statistics Committee has said that the profitability of goods sold in the first quarter of 2023 was 9.9 percent, down from 10.4 percent a year earlier.

The committee also reported that the return on sales for the year fell to 8 percent from 8.3 percent.

As of April 1, businesses’ accounts receivable rose by 6.1 percent year on year to 62.8 billion rubels ($24.4 billion). Of that amount, 8.9 billion rubels was overdue.

Businesses also had 72.1 billion rubels in debts to others, up 3.4 percent year on year. Overdue debts totaled 9 billion rubels.

Two months ago, Alaksandr Łukašenka instructed the government to restore state-owned enterprises to profitability.