Even Agriculture "failed" Lukashenko
- 19.11.2025, 10:33
How the Belarusian economy is slowing down.
GDP growth in Belarus slowed down to 1.5% over ten months. Industrial production is firmly entrenched in the negative growth zone. And even agriculture failed, despite the record harvest. Stocks, on the other hand, are doing just fine. The fact that the economy is increasingly slowing down has not stopped stocks in warehouses from growing, writes Plan B.
If GDP growth amounted to 1.6% for nine months, it slowed down to 1.5 in ten months, Belstat reported. The loss seems small, but it means that the Belarusian economy grew in the opposite direction in October. One and a half percent growth was due to what was accumulated at the beginning of the year.
Then the Belarusian authorities still believed in the bright future of demand in the Russian market. Therefore, the plants produced more than they could afford. They came to their senses only when the warehouses were full. Already by spring the stocks in the warehouses of the plants amounted to 80% of the monthly production volume and have not become less since then. On the contrary, at the end of ten months they grew by 1.1 percentage points.
While factories began to produce much less than before. In ten months, industrial production fell by 1.3 percent compared to the same period last year. Specifically in October, it fell by almost 6 percent. Moreover, the manufacturing industry, which accounts for the lion's share of industrial production, suffered the main blow.
Even agriculture has failed, despite the record harvest, which Lukashenko has already boasted of. At the end of ten months, it fell by 0.1 percent, despite October's growth of 4 percent.
The economy was saved from the worst fate by the income of the population, which greatly outpaced the rate of economic growth. Thanks to this, sales in Belarus were growing and retail turnover increased by 7.7 percent over ten months. However, prosperity cannot be built on the income of the population alone.
And the Belarusian economy still has two months of trials before the end of the year. Moreover, the demand in the Russian market shows no signs of recovery. On the contrary, it shows quite different signs. Russia is so short of money that the Russian authorities have even started to save a little money for the war.
Nobody has been saying for a long time that the Belarusian economy can fulfill its growth target of 4.1%. But in reality everything goes to the point that the economy will not be able to justify even the most pessimistic forecasts. Although this is not a reason for the authorities to abandon grandiose plans. The Belarusian economy has already received a new impossible task for the next year.