The course towards confrontation with the Russian Federation resulted in the collapse of the Belarusian economy
Due to problems with Russian oil supplies, the Belarusian economy is facing serious problems.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta writes about this, citing data from official Belarusian statistics.
“The Belarusian economy is falling in the first month of the new year due to a decrease in industrial production. Problems in industry were caused by the lack of supplies of Russian oil. There are problems ahead with demand for other Belarusian products - some factories are already suspending production,” the publication writes.
Thus, in January, Belarus' GDP decreased by 1,9% in January compared to the same period last year. As follows from statistics, the economy collapsed due to a 5,8% decline in industrial production.
It is indicated that all sectors of the Belarusian industry are in the red: mining (potassium fertilizers) by 3,6%, manufacturing by 5%, and the supply of electricity, gas, steam, and hot water has decreased by 10,5%.
“If experts see the reason for the reduction in the energy and heat supply sector in the warm winter, then the rest are caused by economic problems. Thus, the production of potash fertilizers has been falling since the fall of last year due to a decrease in demand. In the manufacturing industry, experts primarily note the influence of the oil refining sector. As reported, instead of the usual 2 million tons of oil in previous periods, Belarus received 500 thousand tons from Russia. As a result, according to Belstat, production volumes of petroleum products decreased in January by 41%, chemical products - by 25,2%,” it says in the article.
In addition, on Monday the two largest Belarusian factories, MAZ and Belshina, announced plans to send some of their workers on forced leave due to production cuts. However, on Tuesday MAZ announced that they had received a new order and canceled vacations.
“At Belshina the situation is apparently even worse. Three out of four productions there were stopped: extra-large tires - from February 17 to March 1, mass-produced tires and large tires - from February 17 to 21. During downtime, workers will receive 2/3 of their salary. The official reason for the stop is the planned repair of technological equipment, but unofficially they talk about problems with sales of Belarusian tires to Russia,” the newspaper writes.
The course toward confrontation with Russia has resulted in the collapse of the Belarusian economy.