Belarus increases exports despite sanctions - PM
MINSK. Dec 2 (Interfax) - Belarus has managed to make up for exports lost due to western sanctions and even increase exports, which have grown by 450% since 2020, Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko said.
"Compared to 2020, our exports have essentially increased by five times, even more, by 5.5 times, from a little over $7 billion to $40 billion. There has been very substantial growth in this period. This is a very decent figure for our country that confirms that everything's alright with our strategy," Golovchenko said on TV channel Belarus 1.
"A difficult problem, but very important one that we managed to solve is not just the complete reorientation of lost sanctions exports. We not only replaced this share, but also increased the exports that were lost, meaning to unfriendly countries. And the share of distant countries in our export basket has increased from 11% at one time in the pre-sanctions period to 20% now," he said.
He also said he believes the strengthening of the U.S. dollar will be temporary and that the Russian ruble and yuan are the main currencies for Belarus.
"What's happening right now is a temporary phenomenon that is related to many internal and external factors against the backdrop of the arrival or announcement of the results of the presidential election in the United States, where the elected president declared the slogan to make America great again. Such messages, of course, will have an effect on the international financial market. Everyone expects the dollar to be stronger. Accordingly, forex futures already factor in this adjustment. They might easily rebound later. I would say that emotional decisions are affecting investors more at this point," Golovchenko said.
"Given that our currency exchange rate is floating, we have market pricing, so accordingly the Belarusian ruble has automatically depreciated a little against the U.S. dollar. But I stress that the whole time prior to this the Belarusian ruble strengthened against the American currency. And the Russian ruble and Chinese yuan are after all the most important for us. This is the currency of our main trade partners and the friendly countries that settle up with us in this currency," Golovchenko said.