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Imported goods to disappear from shops

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Imported goods to disappear from shops

The foreign trade turnover of Belarus has collapsed sharply.

The total foreign trade turnover of Belarus in January 2015 as compared to the same period of 2014 has dropped by almost one third.

Notably, the shrinking has hit all groups of trade partners of Belarus. Thus, the turnover of Belarus’ trade with the CIS countries has decreased by 40.8%, the turnover with the countries of the Eurasian Economic union has dropped by 40.1%, by 39.6% with Russia, and by 24.8% with the European Union countries. These figures are offered by the official website of the National Statistics Committee of Belarus, Radio Svaboda informs.

Attempts of the authorities to sell more Belarusian goods abroad are fruitless. “Things have come to the point when this index became the most important one in assessment of work of all Belarusian agencies working abroad. It is annually said at special sessions of the board of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus,” said an international analyst Raman Yakauleuski.

“But there is no desired breakthrough so far. One could suppose that the problem is the quality of Belarusian goods and unsuccessful marketing. But these are rather external symptoms. The main thing is the system of Belarusian economy.

By the way, appeals to open up new markets are heard from Lukashenka, Kabyakou, Makei. But it is very difficult to break through to any new segments of the world market.

Some optimistic statements of authorities are related to the hopes to open an Embassy in Australia, for instance. It looks strange to me. We cannot fine-tune interrelations with our nearest neighbours, like Lithuania and Poland. The trade with Russia is shrinking. So there are only hopes for such exotic countries as Australia or New Zealand are left for us,” Yakauleuski said.

The general decrease of the external trade turnover is observed in two directions: exports of our goods to other countries are falling, and imports of foreign-made goods to Belarus are decreased, an economist Leu Marholin notes.

“I think a common citizen is going to see less favourable product mix of imported goods in Belarusian shops rather soon. He won’t find familiar food products and durable goods there anymore.”

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