Russian economy downfall crashed Belarusian industry indicators

The National Statistics Committee data suggests that in January 2015, Belarus’ production decreased by 6.2% compared with January 2014. Belarus’ industry suffered mainly due to the recession in Russia and because of the large export volumes to this country. Belarus’ industry is likely to continue to fall due to the lack of substantial positive results in the petro-chemical industry. In addition, mass lay-offs will continue to trend; settlement of payments will deteriorate both domestically and with foreign partners; and some unprofitable enterprises will close. The Belarusian government has abandoned the practice of stimulating growth artificially by inflating production plans and industrial workers should forget about significant wage growth in 2015.