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| Economy - overview: |
Belarus has seen little structural reform since 1995, when President LUKASHENKO launched the country on the path of "market socialism." In keeping with this policy, LUKASHENKO reimposed administrative controls over prices and currency exchange rates and expanded the state's right to intervene in the management of private enterprise. In addition to the burdens imposed by extremely high inflation, businesses have been subject to pressure on the part of central and local governments, e.g., arbitrary changes in regulations, numerous rigorous inspections, and retroactive application of new business regulations prohibiting practices that had been legal. Further economic problems are two consecutive bad harvests, 1998-99, and persistent trade deficits. Close relations with Russia, possibly leading to reunion, color the pattern of economic developments. For the time being, Belarus remains self-isolated from the West and its open-market economies.
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| GDP: |
purchasing power parity - $78.8 billion (2000 est.)
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| GDP - real growth rate: |
4% (2000 est.)
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| GDP - per capita: |
purchasing power parity - $7,500 (2000 est.)
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| GDP - composition by sector: |
agriculture:
13%
industry:
46%
services:
41% (1999 est.)
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| Population below poverty line: |
22% (1995 est.)
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| Household income or consumption by percentage share: |
lowest 10%:
4.9%
highest 10%:
19.4% (1993)
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| Inflation rate (consumer prices): |
200% (2000 est.)
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| Labor force: |
4.8 million (2000)
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| Labor force - by occupation: |
industry and construction NA%, agriculture and forestry NA%, services NA%
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| Unemployment rate: |
2.1% officially registered unemployed (December 2000); large number of underemployed workers
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| Budget: |
revenues:
$4 billion
expenditures:
$4.1 billion, including capital expenditures of $180 million (1997 est.)
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| Industries: |
metal-cutting machine tools, tractors, trucks, earth movers, motorcycles, television sets, chemical fibers, fertilizer, textiles, radios, refrigerators
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| Industrial production growth rate: |
5% (2000 est.)
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| Electricity - production: |
24.911 billion kWh (1999)
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| Electricity - production by source: |
fossil fuel:
99.9%
hydro:
0.1%
nuclear:
0%
other:
0% (1999)
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| Electricity - consumption: |
27.647 billion kWh (1999)
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| Electricity - exports: |
2.62 billion kWh (1999)
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| Electricity - imports: |
7.1 billion kWh (1999)
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| Agriculture - products: |
grain, potatoes, vegetables, sugar beets, flax; beef, milk
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| Exports: |
$7.4 billion (f.o.b., 2000)
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| Exports - commodities: |
machinery and equipment, chemicals, metals, textiles, foodstuffs
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| Exports - partners: |
Russia 66%, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Lithuania (1998)
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| Imports: |
$8.3 billion (f.o.b., 2000)
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| Imports - commodities: |
mineral products, machinery and equipment, metals, chemicals, foodstuffs
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| Imports - partners: |
Russia 54%, Ukraine, Germany, Poland, Lithuania (1998)
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| Debt - external: |
$1 billion (2000 est.)
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| Economic aid - recipient: |
$194.3 million (1995)
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| Currency: |
Belarusian ruble (BYB/BYR)
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| Exchange rates: |
Belarusian rubles per US dollar - 1,180 (yearend 2000), 730,000 (15 December 1999), 139,000 (25 January 1999), 46,080 (second quarter 1998), 25,964 (1997), 15,500 (yearend 1996); note - on 1 January 2000, the national currency was redenominated at one new ruble to 2,000 old rubles
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| Fiscal year: |
calendar year
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