Quarter of Organizations in Public Sector of Belarus Are Loss-Making

According to data of the National Statistical Committee, quarter of organizations with a state share of ownership turned out loss-making in the first quarter of 2016.

Such organizations take the leading position among Belarusian enterprises, thus, a quarter of them were found loss-making in 2016, BelaPAN informed on June 1 with a reference to the bulletin of the National Statistical Committee of Belarus.

1.5 million employees work at 3662 state enterprises. In the first quarter these enterprises made up 80% of industrial production. An average profit margin was 5.6%. At the same time, instead of profit enterprises had net loss of Br3.9 trillion in the first quarter. In January-March the share of loss-making organizations in the public sector amounted to 26.3%.

Expert explain the negative result amid positive return with a significant increase of debt service obligations, in most cases currency ones, caused by the devaluation.

This May during the meeting with economists, representatives of the National Bank informed that the debt of Belarusian enterprises is fourfold higher than the revenue of enterprises. As of March 1 debt index of enterprises (debt under bank credits against average monthly revenue) equaled to 386%. This indicator had constantly increased since January 2015.

According to March monitoring held by the National Bank, almost 50% of borrowers faced sales slowdown. Only 10% of enterprises had demand pull.