Positive Balance Of Belarus’ Foreign Trade Collapses Almost 10 Times

• 13.02.2024, 10:17

Shocking statistics.

The National Bank has summed up Belarus' foreign trade in 2023. Thanks to services, the overall balance remained positive and amounted to $480.7 million. The year before it was $4.6 billion - 9.5 times more.

Last year, the country exported goods and services worth $47.9 billion and imported $47.4 billion. Imports grew much faster than exports: 12.1% versus 2.1%. As a result, the balance, although it remained positive, collapsed from $4.6 billion to $480.7 million.

Trade in goods ruined everything. If the year before last Belarus sold more abroad than it bought, then in 2023 it was the other way around. The balance was plus $385 million, last year - minus $2.4 billion. Exports grew by 4.6%, and imports by 12%.

Imports of services also increased significantly, by 12.7%, while exports fell by 7.9%. However, the balance still remained positive and saved the overall foreign trade indicator.

Earlier, Belstat calculated that last year Belarus sold goods abroad for $40.2 billion, and bought goods for $43.3 billion. The negative balance was formed primarily due to attention to trade with countries outside the CIS: imports from there increased by 29%.

It is unknown what Belarus was so actively buying from the “far arc” states. The statistical agency hides information about which countries our country trades with and what exactly it trades with.