Belarus trade deficit narrows 43% in 2011
MINSK. Feb 1 (Interfax) - Belarus saw a merchandise trade deficit of $5.45 billion in 2011, compared to $9.6 billion in 2010, the National Statistics Committee (Belstat) said in a press release.
The merchandise trade deficit dropped 43.2% in 2011, even though it exceeded the 2010 level by 26.1% in the first half of the year.
The deficit was at $1.41 billion in the fourth quarter, compared to a surplus of $426.6 million in the third, a deficit of $1.43 billion in the second and $3.03 billion in the first quarter.
The trade balance was largely improved through a trend for moving towards achieving a surplus in trade with countries outside the CIS due to a rise in international prices for petroleum products, which are the main group of Belarusian exports to the EU. In addition, Belarus slashed investment imports from EU countries under the impact of devaluation and administrative barriers.
The merchandise trade surplus with countries outside the CIS reached $3.13 billion in 2011, compared to a deficit of $2.7 billion in 2010. The deficit with countries outside the CIS in the first half was $279 million, down 42.4% from the first half of 2010.
The deficit in trade with Russia for the energy-dependent Belarusian economy continued to grow in 2011, climbing 38.3% to $11.24 billion.
Exports of Belarusian goods climbed 59.4% in 2011 to $40.29 billion ($3.36 billion on average per month). In overall exports, the share of exports outside the CIS increased to 51.6% from 46.1% in 2010. Imports grew 31.1% to $45.75 billion ($3.8 billion on average per month). Russia accounted for 54.5% of imports, compared with 51.8% in 2010.
The rate of export growth exceeded the rate of import growth by 28.3 percentage points in 2011, compared to 25.2 percentage points in the nine months and 8.7 percentage points in the first half.
Exports of Belarusian goods to Russia amounted to $13.68 billion in 2011, up 37.5%, and exports to countries outside the CIS totaled $20.79 billion, up 78.5%.
Imports from Russia increased 37.8% to $24.92 billion and imports from countries outside the CIS rose 23.1% to $17.66 billion.
Foreign trade turnover in 2011 grew 43% to $8604 billion. In overall trade turnover, Russia's share dropped to 44.9% from 46.6% in 2010 and Kazakhstan's share fell to 0.9% from 1.4%.