Russian businesses invest over $5 bln in Belarus's real economy in 2023

MINSK. Feb 13 (Interfax) - Russian businesses invested over $5 billion in Belarus's real economy in 2023, the Belarusian National Statistics Committee (Belstat) said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Foreign investors invested $7.7 billion in the real economy during 2023. The main investors in the country's organizations were Russian businesses, accounting for 66.7% of all incoming investment, and Cyprus, [which accounted] for 14.7%," the statement says.

Russian investment thus accounted for around $5.136 billion.

It was reported that 74.8% of the total foreign direct investment in the Belarusian economy was made up of direct investment.

In turn, Belarusian businesses invested $5.7 billion abroad in 2023, the Belarusian National Statistics Committee said. "Considerable amounts of investment from Belarusian organizations were channeled into Russian businesses, accounting for 91.2% of all investment [around $5.2 billion]," the statement said.