Belarus on course to achieve targeted 3.8% GDP growth in 2023 - minister

MINSK. Nov 15 (Interfax) - The Belarusian economy is developing robustly and the 3.8% GDP growth target or 2023 will be fulfilled, Economy Minister Alexander Chervyakov said at a government meeting.

"Since the beginning of the year, we have been working in line with a certain plan, and the decisions that the government has made to push the economy forward are producing results. We already have preliminary results for 10 months. We have fulfilled the GDP growth target ahead of schedule; the target for the year is 3.8%," the state news agency BelTA quoted him as saying.

"Taking into account the economic performance in 10 months, we assume that we will be able to maintain momentum and fulfill the task set by the head of state - 3.8% GDP growth," he said.

The growth is being achieved through the mobilization of reserves in industry and agriculture. "There are also untapped reserves in trade and the construction sector. Today, almost all sectors are recovering, we have fully made up for losses of markets, we maintain a fairly good pace of wage growth, household income, the acceptable inflation rate," Chervyakov said.

Chervyakov also commented on foreign trade. "We are working to increase the physical volumes of exports; the growth was 27% in January-September. In other words, we supplied 27% more products in physical volumes. But the growth was partially offset by the price factor. We have a foreign trade surplus for goods and services," he said. As for foreign trade in goods specifically, a trade surplus was achieved in September for the first time since the beginning of the year. "This means that the mechanisms that we are using to increase export supplies are working," he said.

Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko said GDP grew 3.5% in January-September and year-on-year growth was 6.2% in September alone. "All regions made a contribution to GDP growth. Minsk Region remains in the economic driver's seat," Golovchenko said.

"The most important qualitative indicator - real disposable personal income - increased by 5.1% in January-August," he said.

"Measures taken jointly with the National Bank made it possible to keep the inflation rate within acceptable parameters - 4.3% by December of this year," the prime minister said.