Belarusian business reports about worse conditions

Results of the opinion poll carried out in April and May this year show that business conditions in Belarus worsened.

The statement was made by Ihar Pelipas, the head of the Supervisory Council of the IPM Research Centre at the international conference “Minsk after Riga: Forum on reforms, or how Belarus should adapt and develop in the new regional contexts” held in Minsk on May 28-29, Yezhednevnik reports.

Owners, directors and deputy directors of 416 small and medium-sized enterprises were interviewed. The sample was based on the field of activities, the number of employees and the region. The results were compared to the previous poll carried out in May 2014.

Almost a half of respondents (48.3%) described the economic state of their company as “neither good nor bad”. In spring 2014, 56.9% of respondents gave this answer. This year, 24% said the state was “rather bad than good” and 5.8% described it as “very bad”. As many as 19.2% of directors said the economic state was “rather good than bad” and 2.6% think it is “very good” against 12.6% last year.

Last year, 50.6% of respondents said business conditions hadn't changed, but only 24% gave the same answer this year. As many as 43.5% noted the conditions “worsened a little”, while 7.2 said they “improved a little”. At the same time, 24.8% of top managers think the conditions “worsened significantly”. Only 0.5% said they “improved significantly”.

Asked to evaluate the government's work in various sectors aimed at improving business climate, more than 40% of respondents said they didn't notice any effects. Asked to evaluate the level of a dialogue between business and government bodies, 15.9% gave it 1 point, 28.6% – 2 points, 41.6% – 3 out of 5 points. Only 3.1of Belarusian businessmen gave 5 points.