Finance Ministry: wages to grow in 2022
In an interview to ONT TV channel, Belarus’ Finance Minister, Yuri Seliverstov, said that real wage growth is expected in 2022
“Everything will be fine with this year's budget and there should be no concerns on the matter. Initially, when forming the country’ budget for the current year, we relied on conservative estimates. It was unclear how the country would get out of the pandemic, how all our colleagues who purchase our goods and services would get out of the pandemic, and how much we would be able to earn for the country as a whole. We had a fairly significant deficit at the level of Br4bn [approx. $1.6bn] which increased to Br6bn [$2.4bn] to exceed 3 percent of the GDP in early 2021, taking into account clarifications. It was planned to cover it from the residual budget – that is, the cushion that we’ve generated due to lack of spending in previous years,” Mr. Seliverstov said.
According to the Finance Minister, by the end of nine months of 2021, Belarus’ deficit slightly exceeded $1bn [approx. $400m] – that is, less than 1 percent of GDP.
“This year, we would probably fail to completely get out of the deficit. Moreover, certain industries are subject to sanctions pressure. However, there will be no failure in payments or the state’s fulfilment of its obligations. Next year, we plan to group the income and put the unnecessary expenses aside to stay in the balance. There will be a salary growth in any case and it will be higher than inflation. We understand that it is necessary to form appropriate reserves, since the world has not yet emerged from the pandemic. It’s too early to relax,” Mr. Seliverstov added.
